


Prisoner of Conscience

by raywrex



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Catra (She-Ra) Leaves the Horde, Catra (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Character Development, F/F, F/M, Found Family, Friendship, Introspection, Kyle (She-Ra) Leaves the Horde, Lonnie (She-Ra) Leaves the Horde, M/M, POV Adora (She-Ra), POV Catra (She-Ra), POV Multiple, POV Scorpia (She-Ra), Rogelio (She-Ra) Leaves the Horde, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner's A+ Parenting, Slow Burn, horde trio
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:29:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29501346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raywrex/pseuds/raywrex
Summary: In a moment of chance, Catra captures Adora during the Battle of Brightmoon, forcing her and her squad to make a difficult choice, when presented with the fate that the Horde has in store for their former friend.A canon divergent fic, in which Catra and Adora had grown up closer to Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio.  Which left Catra less isolated after Adora’s defection, forging the four of them and Scorpia into the elite Claw Squadron. When Catra doesn’t try to flee to the Crystal Castle, she is never forced to ‘let go’ of Adora, and Shadow Weaver is able to cling onto power as Hordak’s right hand.Tags will be updated as I go.
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Catra & Kyle & Lonnie & Rogelio (She-Ra), Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora & Kyle (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Entrapta & Scorpia (She-Ra), Catra & Kyle (She-Ra), Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra), Kyle & Lonnie & Rogelio (She-ra), Kyle & Rogelio (She-Ra), Kyle/Rogelio (She-Ra), Lonnie & Rogelio (She-Ra), Lonnie & Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 90





	1. Chapter 1: Chains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captured by the Horde, Adora reflects on her situation and recieves visitors.

Adora awoke to find herself somewhere unexpected; not in the small, cramped Fright Zone cells she had presumed to find herself in the few moments of consciousness she’d wrestled away from the darkness, when she’d recognised the familiar shapes of the kingdom that she’d once called home. Instead, the room was much larger; the grey-green metal walls and dim lighting were to be anticipated, but she was separated from them by a translucent green, domed forcefield in its centre, the only other occupant of which was a large metal loop jutting from the floor which was connected by a heavy chain to the manacles around her wrists.

The larger room however offered more typical companions, there were four guards that she could see, each in heavy armour: two with staves and the other two with pulse rifles, there was a technician there too, positioning what appeared to be a camera of some kind. In her periphery she could just about make out a gangly creature with an enormous head; pacing and muttering to himself; he was familiar, but right now she couldn’t place him from the shadows. He was a Force Captain she assumed; probably an important one if they had put him charge of She-Ra.

She-Ra. That was her way out she realised, but she would need the sword, where was the sword? There was no sign of it in from her admittedly poor vantage point, so either it was with the Force Captain behind her, or it had been locked away somewhere in the Fright Zone; maybe it was hanging on the wall of the Black Garnet Chamber or Hordak’s Throne Room. Maybe the conqueror had sealed it away in his private vault with the other treasures he had deemed worthy of preservation. It was possible she considered that it was still in Brightmoon, that her friends were keeping it safe as they planned a daring rescue. But no; even the dumbest of Horde troops wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave it behind, even during what had to have been a hasty retreat.

The memories began to come back to her; how she’d ended up in this mess ran through her mind’s eye; the battle turning south, the last-minute arrival of the Princess Alliance, and how their super-charged magic had repelled the Horde. Then her idiot self had decided to give chase; a lot of Horde soldiers had been killed or wounded in the wake of the mystic shockwave, and she had to catch a glimpse of those mismatched eyes, she needed to know that her former teammates weren’t amongst them. She remembered her relief when she saw a feline organising the survivor’s retreat, surrounded by familiar faces. Then she recalled their yet another standoff, before feeling the explosion and the darkness it brought.

Catra. It had to have been her who had dragged her from the battlefield to the Fright Zone before Bow and Glimmer were able to catch up. Maybe not Catra exactly, she was stronger than she looked, but probably had Rogellio or that Scorpia girl do the actrual heavy lifting, not that she was heavy. It was getting harder to think straight, especaily when it was about her friends, her thoughts would spin instantly to their newfound contempt for her, and leave her feeling worse than any battle ever would. The four of them had been the most important people in her world for as long as she could remember. Now she couldn’t call any of them friends; Lonnie had made that clear when they’d last been here, and Rogelio had swung at her like his life was on the line, even Kyle had drawn a weapon against her back at Brightmoon. No, they weren’t friends anymore, her cell was proof enough of that. Not that it was an easy thought to reconcile, or her knowing she still had everyone back at Brightmoon, it was different with the other former cadets; they understood her, and now she knew she would never know that understanding again, just the pity her childhood memories seemed to evoke from the Princesses.

The creature in her periphery shifted, leaning his weight from one side to the other, seemingly now noticing that she was awake, replaced his nervous muttering with a shrill clicking noise as he skittered around to face her.

“The traitor princess is awake. Good, Lord Hordak will be pleased, yes, good. Shadow Weaver too, yes. Both pleased, very good.” He spoke quickly in a high-pitched voice, spitting words loudly at her from a circular maw lined with thin, pointed teeth, flanked by a pair of narrow tusks. Face to face now, she knew him; the bulging yellow eyes prominent ear fins, along with the dark blue uniform reserved for Hordak’s personals staff marked him as the warlord’s adjutant; Mantenna. He continued to skitter back and forth in front of her, clicking; he moved quickly on his four spindly legs. “Inform Lord Hordak, yes. Lord Hordak gave you an order, to fetch him, find him when the She-Ra wakes, yes.” He called for her other captors to watch me closely as he rushed from her prison.

* * *

She had been awake for what she guessed was about an hour the door opened, and two more guards entered, followed by a slender figure in red robes; practically gliding across the steel floor.

“Adora…” she cooed in the deep voice of her childhood she still heard in her nightmares. The eye slits of her mask practically glowing; Adora knew this was going nowhere good. “It seems you’ve found your way back to me at long last.” Though all Shadow Weaver got in return was a scowl. “Surely the rebellion hasn’t robbed you of the manners I so painstakingly impressed upon you?” When the young blonde responded with silence once more, the white glows narrowed. “I never expected this kind of insolence from you, but very well if you wish to continue to play ‘rebel’ then let me remind you that you find yourself at my mercy. But do not fret; you need not suffer. I have no intention of hurting you, I only want to help you, the same as I always have.”

“You never wanted to help me; you lied to me my whole life.” Adora had intended on giving her former guardian the silent treatment, but that last comment had struck a nerve, once she would have believed Shadow Weaver, but since her defection she had come to see what a parent was supposed to be in Queen Angela and so she found herself hissing her words at the sorceress.

“And how did I lie to you? That you were meant for greatness? That you were destined for power and glory? That you belong at my side? You’ve proved all of those true Adora; She-Ra, your little games of heroism, this very conversation is all proof enough is it not?”

“You said we were liberating Etheria when the Horde was really conquering it. You’re evil.”

“There is no need to be so melodramatic Adora, a good soldier shouldn’t be so … emotional. Evil is but a point of view. I’m no more evil than you are, and we are liberating Etheria; liberating it from the its own hubris. Do you honestly think Hordak has any intention of ruling over a kingdom of ashes and ghosts Adora? His methods may be on the harsh side, but there is an old saying about omelettes and eggs, did you get the chance to try omelettes in Brightmoon?”

“Omelettes? Those are people you’re breaking; not eggs. You’re a monster.”

“I’m offering you a chance out of your hopeless situation Adora, I’d rather all those years together not have been wasted. If you swear fealty back to the Horde; re-join our efforts and help restore order to Etheria, I’m sure Lord Hordak will look upon you with benevolence.”

“Kindness? There’s nothing kind about Hordak, there’s nothing kind about you either.” Weaver’s eyes flashed, the ends of her hair and robe flared outward for a second before settling back to their usual slow sway.

“I raised you from an infant Adora, I’m the only kindness you’ve ever known. I’m the one who shared the secrets of greatness with you, who did everything in my power to spare you from your own foolishness. I even let you keep that pet of yours.” Adora found her temper flaring once more; the mention of Catra was too much, the reminder of the years of cruelty her friend had been forced to endure, and all the times she had stood by and watched. There was no way her rage wasn’t visible to the sorceress, after all the woman was an expert on reading her emotions at this point, but none the less Shadow Weaver had been right, about this not being the time for reckless emotions; she would need her head about her if she was to make it out of here, so the girl fell back on the only trick she knew for feelings, and forced them down, buried them where they couldn’t hurt her before meeting the gaze of the red mask that seemed to stare into her soul.

At this point Shadow Weaver seemed to decide that the two of them seemed to have nothing else to say to one another, instead she just kept looking at her, studying. She couldn’t be sure what thoughts were running through the mind of her would-be mother, she almost wanted to scoff at the audacity of the woman for daring to show her face after everything she had done to her, but this kind of arrogance had always been her calling card.

* * *

Shadow Weaver eventually left her to ‘consider her options’ for a few hours. Not that there was anything to consider, there was no way she was going back, betraying the rebellion, or ever again helping the Horde’s rampage across Etheria. Which probably meant she would be spending whatever was left of her life either in this cell, or on Beast Island, she shuddered at the thought.

Maybe the others would come for her, she’d come for them after Princess Prom, right? But it was one hell of a risk, they’d have to be putting people too important to lose in the way of some serious harm all to save one soldier; even if they wanted to come for her, that would be hard to justify, especially after what had happened to Entrapta.

The thought of Bow and Glimmer arguing for the rescue mission was comforting, but that is all it was, a thought. Angela had refused a rescue for her own daughter less than two months ago, and with everyone licking their wounds after the battle, there was no way help was coming. Instead, she busied her mind with more useful fantasies; how she would defeat the guards around her if she had the chance. She played out scenario after scenario, the hundred ways she could disarm each of the five of them, before making her daring escape. But she knew that too was just a fantasy, there was no way to break her manacles and then the forcefield kept her from the rest of the room. It was hopeless; she was at the mercy of the Horde.

She wanted her friends, as much as she hated to admit that weakness to herself, she wanted Bow and Glimmer, she wanted Swift Wind, she wanted Perfuma, Mermista, Frosta and even Sea Hawk. Most of all she wanted the friends she had left behind; Lonnie who always pushed her to be the best she could be, Rogelio who had put himself between her and harm so many times, and Kyle who always made her laugh; intentionally or otherwise. She wanted Catra, her Catra, the one she remembered, the one she mourned, instead of the sad, angry girl she had come to see inhabiting her skin. Maybe this was how Catra felt she wondered, abandoned and alone, it made sense, and the feline had always been one to lash out when she was upset. No. This wasn’t the time, she had a mission, she had the Rebellion to think off, she couldn’t waste time moping, she was stronger than that. She just needed a plan.

Maybe she could lie to Shadow Weaver, agree to her demands, and pretend to defect before escaping. Maybe, if she could transform, She-Ra could just fight her way out, maybe if Catra, or Lonnie, or Kyle, or even Rogelio came to visit her, she could convince them to help her. All duds, she couldn’t act to save her life, literally in this case, she had no idea where the sword was, and all her squad had made it clear they hated her.

Maybe they were right to hate her, maybe she had abandoned them, left them behind. Would it have been so hard to sneak into the Fright Zone and try to talk to them. She just let Glimmer and the Queen boss her about, send her to Plumeria, to Salienias, to everywhere else but to the ears of the people she cared about. It had been months and she still struggled with the look of betrayal each of them had flashed her over the past few months. All she had wanted to do was help people, to help the people the Horde was hurting, and now because her stupid brain wouldn’t let her explain it to her family, everything was lost to her.

Adora’s mood had only darkened in the next hour or so; trapped with her own thoughts and failures before the door opened once again. This time four guards entered the room; followed by the tall figure with the pale face she’d only ever seen on posters or monitors and once or twice from when he’d addressed the whole Fright Zone in some speech. He was of course followed by another four guards, the eight of them wearing dark blue tunic over their armour, and black visors where the others had green. Hordak had a reputation as a formidable fighter in his own right; she knew that despite their skill and prestige, his personal guard was mostly for show.

His guards parted as he approached the barrier, the nearest of her captors deactivating the barrier at a curt nod.

“Adora” his tone was cold, but not impolite. For the time being he at least wanted to keep things civil, that might have been the smarter move for her but, she had a habit of not thinking every move through.

“Hordak” she spat back at him.

“That’s Lord Hordak; traitor princess” the gangly form of Mantenna had slunk back into the room behind Hordak’s guards it seemed, taking his rightful place at his master’s heel.

“Silence” Hordak’s tone brook no argument and the shrill whimper that answered the command had cowed her jailer back into submission. The warlord returned his attention back to her, his red eyes narrowing when he recalled her immediate defiance.

“I see the Princesses have well and truly corrupted you. A genuine disappointment: For one touted with such promise to become so enraptured by their lies.” More performance she knew, presumably for the guards that still bought into the ‘great liberator’ charade.

“it is a shame that we were never able to face each other in the field, I’m told that She-Ra is quite magnificent, that none can stand before her. I would have relished the opportunity to face her.”

“Give me back my sword, and we can fight anytime you like.”

“An enticing offer, but one that would be foolish to accept. Do you honestly think I would risk the Horde itself, just to satisfy my own ego? Ignorant child.”

“You’re the one who kept me ignorant. But I see everything now, the lies; the cruelty; all of it.”

“I’m glad to see you taking your situation seriously for once. The reports that come across my desk make you out to be more interested in dancing and hot springs than fighting a war.” She hated that he wasn’t wrong; they were fighting a war, but it was a war that hadn’t touched Brightmoon, and her new friends had been so desperate to show her the world outside of training routines and drills, that they had barely fought in months.”

“Why are you here? Think you could turn me where Shadow Weaver couldn’t?”

“Turn you? No Adora we are past that, even if I felt your defection to be more valuable than the message of your fate would serve, your compliance would be irrelevant. Shadow Weaver has assured me she can erase every rebellious thought in that treasonous little head. But no; if the Princesses turned you once, they could turn you again.” Adora didn’t like the implications of ‘her fate’ and the idea of being purged from her own mind by Shadow Weaver’s magic was too horrifying to dwell on. “But to answer your question, I am here out of courtesy, you are a Princess are you not Adora? And thus, there are certain formalities that must be upheld. Besides, I would be remiss not to greet you personally.”

“Consider me greeted” she muttered at him, her confidence fading. A thin smile formed across his thinner lips.

“As you wish.” Hordak waved his wrist dismissively, before curling it into a fist and lowering back into the folds of his cape. He abruptly turned on his heels and left, the forcefield flickered back on as the tail end of his entourage disappeared through the door behind him.

And then she was alone again. Or as alone as she could be with her guards still about her, and her jailor clicking in the corner, she swore to herself she wouldn’t let them see her cry, she was a leader of the rebellion, it would do no good for these guards to see her cry. Instead, she curled up on the floor and tried to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Following Orders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra plans for an evening of gloating over her former best friend. But a new set of orders changes things.

Catra had won. Maybe not the battle itself, but she had managed to pull one hell of an equaliser out of the bag. That had become something of her calling card whenever one of her missions had gone awry due to She-Ra’s interference; she would find some way to balance out her defeat by bringing in something useful: intel usually, but there was that that time she captured the Brightmoon Princess. It had always been enough to spare her a reprimand and it seemed to impress Hordak too; at this point he appeared to expect it of her; plenty of her debriefings ended with his glare softening to a sly smile as Shadow Weaver fumed silently.

But this time she had outdone herself. She had managed to navigate the trap she had found herself caught in almost as soon as the battle had started: She was leading an attack on the capital of the Rebellion, despite exactly zero experience as a field general and nowhere near enough troops. Shadow Weaver had set her up to fail, die probably. The old witch must have seen her earning Hordak’s favour as a threat, and given her own recent failures wanted to eliminate the competition. Or maybe it was just another act of casual spite.

Regardless she had played things cautiously; used her paltry artillery to bombard the castle itself; forcing the Queen to dedicate herself to a forcefield and managed to divide the Princesses on the field. If it weren’t for their reinforcements, she might have pulled it off; the Wind Princess had been on the ropes, and the archer had overcommitted his troops to the right flank, he was practically begging to be punished for it. She had even managed to draw Adora out and had come as close as she ever had to beating her in a straight fight.

But it hadn’t mattered. The other Princesses had arrived and let loose some sort of magical rainbow shockwave thing that tore through her ranks. She had managed to call a retreat the moment she saw the three new armies enter the fray and had minimised losses to a frankly impressive degree. But most importantly, she had cut the legs out from under the rebellion; she had captured She-Ra.

Every time Adora had beaten her in training. Every humble boast despite their near identical scores, every time she had been reprimanded for beating Adora, or for losing by a hair. She had proven them wrong. In the end she had won. She had beaten Adora in the only test that would ever matter, and now her stupid hair poof was rotting in a Fright Zone detention cell.

It had been more luck than she wanted to admit, back on the battlefield as she was calling the retreat, She-Ra came at her. At first, she was able to dance around her as usual, proving that agility would usually beat out raw strength, especially when applied as clumsily as She-Ra did. She’d learnt that from years of sparring with Rogelio. She-Ra moved in much the same way as the Reptilian; as if they were unsure how much of their power to put into their movements, overthinking every action. But as she ducked and dived around Adora’s golden form she was thrown backwards; one of her remain tanks had taken a pot-shot; her own life be damned apparently. She even remembered the hazy screams of Scorpia; demanding the gunner stop, but it was too late for that. Luckily, the gunner was a bad shot, and she walked away with a few scrapes, faint streaks of blood soaking into her fur. She remembered scrambling to her feet, seeing Adora had been caught too, though her magic had allowed her to stay on her feet, she had lost the sword in the blast.

She had yelled at Lonnie, who scrambled to retrieve the blade. Whilst she charged the dazed She-Ra, her powers faded almost instantly without the sword, leaving a weakened Adora, who barely needed a single blow this time. After that it was just a case of Rogelio lifting her into their transport and getting out of there before the rest of the Princesses could figure out what had happened.

She had won. And now she was preparing for a nice, long gloat. She was going to spend her evening watching Adora through a cell door. Finally, she had all the proof that she was the better woman, even Shadow Weaver had been forced to acknowledge her work this time. She finally had everything she wanted.

_Ha. you don’t know what you want._

She did. She wanted to watch Adora realise just how wrong she’d been. Wrong to assume she was better, wrong to curry Shadow Weaver’s favour, wrong to leave her.

Kyle would be here soon with her ration bar, then it was off the prison cells to gloat. And tomorrow she would be honoured by Hordak himself, it would be a lie to say she didn’t think this would warrant promotion, she’d already been a Senior Force Captain in all but name, reporting to Hordak himself, and she was easily a match for most of the other Seniors in a straight fight too. The victory rally would even be the perfect place to cement it officially, those promotions were always public events, celebrating the officer’s victories. This was her time.

She still remembered how they had tried to celebrate her first promotion; when she had just wanted to slink away and sulk over Adora, but her friends hadn’t let her, they had fought through their own grief too and made sure that becoming a Force Captain was a happy memory for her; an evening of jokes and stolen ration bars had been the kindest thing in the world.

In return for that and so much more, she had done everything she could for them; once they were made a specialist unit; she made sure they got new quarters to themselves, the best equipment she could requisition, and anything else she could give them. She’d been determined to make up for the years they had been all but forgotten by Shadow Weaver for not keeping up with her and Adora, even Kyle had begun to flourish under her command.

Her tracker pad pinged, some new order maybe? Not now, she had plans for the evening, what could possibly more important than shoving her victory in Adora’s dumb face. She found herself slinking over to the narrow desk and picked It up, pressing her finger against the flashing red circle in the corner of the screen.

> **Attention all Force Captains.**   
> In celebration of the capture of the renegade princess known as ‘She-Ra’ a victory rally is to be held at the Fright Zone Assembly Area tomorrow evening at 19.00 hours. Attendance is mandatory for all Horde personnel not currently on field assignment. Force Captains will be responsible for ensuring the attendance of their subordinates.  
>   
>  **Order of Services**  
>  Introduction – Force Commander Shadow Weaver.  
> Victory Speech – Lord Hordak.  
> Honour Ceremony – Fallen Heroes of Brightmoon.  
> Commendation – Force Captain Scorpia & Claw Squadron.  
> Commendation – Force Captain Catra.  
> Prisoner Execution – She-Ra.  
> Closing – Force Commander Shadow Weaver.  
>   
> 
> 
> Expected duration: 70 mins.  
>   
> Glory to the Horde.  
>  **Force Captain Mantenna.  
>  Personal Attendant to Lord Hordak.**

She didn’t even reach the end of the notification, unable to move past the execution order. It made her feel sick.

_I thought you wanted to win?_

She barely noticed that she’d dropped her pad, or that she had fallen to the ground. If it weren’t for the instinct to rub her eyes, she wouldn’t have noticed the tears.

* * *

“Are you okay?” Kyle’s voice was nervous, the way he shuffled his feet as he asked, he must have known it wasn’t his place to ask her such questions of an officer. But how could he not, the girl he’d known since they were kids, his … whatever they were, was slumped against a wall fighting back tears. Catra didn’t say anything, but she did look at him, mismatched eyes full of pain and doubt. She wanted to rebuke him but all she could manage was to bury her face back into her knees. The next thing she knew, the Horde’s saddest excuse for a soldier was slumped beside her, and his arm was around her. Physical contact had become alien to her over the last year, Scorpia still tried to hug her, but at this point they were as impersonal as a salute to her, this gentle touch of comfort was something she hadn’t felt since … since it had all gone wrong.

“They’re going to kill her.” She finally broke the silence, the grip on her shoulder tensed, and his face was the same as hers, confusion, and pre-emptive grief.

“I know you all hate her” Kyle began between sobs, “but I never could. Lonnie and Ro were like you, they were so angry when she left, they felt betrayed I guess, abandoned, but whenever she fought us, all I saw was someone who managed to get out.” He almost seemed to scoff at his own words “All I could think was about how I wished I could be brave enough to leave too.”

“You want to leave?”

“I hate it here Catra, all of it: Fighting, training, Shadow Weaver, Lord Hordak, ration bars. The only thing I didn’t hate were you guys, you’re all that matters to me, and this place has been tearing away at all of you since we graduated.” He seemed a little surprised that he’d said it, but followed the outburst with a heavy sigh, and just stared at his feet. “I just don’t think I’m strong enough to actually walk away, you know?”

“I kinda do.” She admitted, “but honestly I’d always kind of figured you’d bought into it all; ‘glory to the Horde’ and all that junk.”

“Nah, never. I mean are you really that shocked that I realised that the people who made my life hell since I was a kid might be the bad guys? I’m not stupid Catra, I just try to I dunno, make the best of things”.

“I don’t think you’re stupid Kyle, I’ve seen your test scores; you’re the smart one, remember?” The blonde failed to hold back a snigger, “Why are you telling me this, they’ll send you to Beast Island or worse if they find out”.

“I don’t think I care anymore,” Kyle raised his head, eyes focused on the light fixture, the gentle thud of his head off the metal wall rang through the heavy silence. “Once they kill her, it’ll just prove that there is no escape from any of it. I think I’d rather be sent to Beast Island than stay here without any hope y’know.” For maybe the first time she saw the optimism melt away from him for just a moment before his mask of joviality went back up, his dumb grin filling his face as if he’d hadn’t said anything. “Besides Catra, you’d have to turn me in for that.”

“You think I wouldn’t?”

“Of course, you wouldn’t, we’re friends, the four of you are my family, and Scorpia now too.”

“Don’t you mean three?”

“Adora’s my family too Catra, and I know despite everything you still care about her, Lonnie and Ro too. If you didn’t care, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“I hate her Kyle, she left us. Left me. She was the most important thing in the world to me and she threw me away without a second thought, all for a fancy sword and her new Princess friends.”

“But you still care about her though, right? I’m pretty sure she still cares about us too.”

“She threw me away without a second thought. Even if she cared then, how could she care now? After all the times I’ve hurt her.”

“I’ve seen She-Ra throw around tanks Catra, do you think we’d still be here if she wasn’t pulling punches. If she wanted to hurt us all she would have to do is stop holding back. She still cares.”

Maybe this could be salvaged, if Kyle’s right, then why the hell were they still fighting each other.

_No, you both made your choices, you picked your sides. Live with it._

“I know it hurts, and I know it’s confusing”, Kyle continued “we’ve all been feeling it, you don’t have to feel it alone, you know. You’re our friend Catra”.

“Am I? I don’t remember the last time we just hung out, even when we were cadets you guys just put up with me ‘cos you liked Adora. You could count all the times I was nice to you on one hand.”

“Catra, I lost count of how many times talked back to Shadow Weaver to cover for my mistakes. The times you stood up for me against other cadets or argued with instructors when I failed at something. And since you got promoted and let me run our tech, and work with Entrapta, and learn to pilot; I finally found things I was good at Catra. I’m your friend.”

“I …”

“Look, I know you like to pretend you’re not, but you’re a good person, and I’m proud of you.” Damn she wanted to hate him right now, but given that she was pretty sure that was the first time someone had ever said that to her, the best she could manage was half-hearted:

“Shut up”.

“Nope” she didn’t have to look at his face to know that his grin was ear-to-ear, she could practically hear it on his voice.

“I killed her Kyle, I captured her and dragged her before Hordak, that’s not something good people do.”

“No. none of knew this would happen, okay. I hate it too, but it’s not our fault. Besides it’s not like there is anything we can do about it?”

_She deserves what she gets. Just sit back and watch what happens._

No. Adora didn’t deserve this, the stupid blonde girl had never been anything but kind to her, and in return she’d dragged her from that perfect Princess life and hurled her at the feet of Hordak and Shadow Weaver. She’d killed her.

_Good. You hate her remember. She ruined everything._

She did hate Adora for leaving, but it wasn’t just hatred. There were a hundred different feelings, pulling in different directions, confusing every thought she had about the girl. She’d won, so why did it feel like she’d lost, why did she feel the same way she would have if the execution order had her own name next to it. She tried to picture it, Hordak’s red grin as his cannon reduced her best friend to dust and she felt sick.

_No. She’s not your friend. She left you, she hates you. You hate her, you hate her, and it’ll be better when she’s dead._

No, it wouldn’t be better; the Adora shaped hole inside her would just fester she knew. Maybe there was another option; the one from Thaymor. Another chance maybe.

“Kyle, if you could help her, right now, would you?”

“What? I… I can’t help her”.

“Would you?”

“… Yes”

_Stop it, let her die. You’ll be free forever._

“What about the others, Lonnie and Ro?”

“M… maybe, I don’t know” the confused teen responded, “Catra, what are you doing?”

“Keeping a broken promise”, for a few seconds she put her own hand around Kyles. “I want you to find the others and take them to Entrapta’s lab in an hour.” Before pushing herself to her feet. Kyle still looked confused, but his eyes had widened as he seemed to realise what was happening and nodded in understanding of his orders.

“Yeah, I can do that, I’ll do that.” He seemed almost giddy as he leapt to his feet, he’d said it himself that he was a fool for hope. But she caught him before he left the room.

“Thanks Kyle.”

* * *

It was a short walk to Scorpia’s quarters, the old Force Captain block was just around the corner from where she rested her own head, but somehow every step felt like it took an age. She was about to do the dumbest thing she could imagine, and she was about to pull Scorpia into the mix. She hoped that her friend’s pushover nature would win out and it’ wouldn’t take much to convince her; but she had that connections to this place that Catra couldn’t understand, so maybe this whole plan was about to go down in flames.

_Stupid girl. You’re going to get yourself killed. You’re going to get all of them killed. Let her go._

There was no time for doubt, if she didn’t do this now, Adora would be lost to her. Not that she cared about Adora, this was about proving a point. That she was better than Adora, she would keep that promise and look out for the idiot.

_You’re all going to die with her._

How the hell had she gotten here: She lets herself be soft for just a little bit, and the next thing she’s organising a suicide mission. Stupid Kyle talking her into this.

The immediate issue remained though; she was about to upend Scorpia’s entire life to rescue a girl meant nothing to the big girl. But maybe if she focused on the other stuff; Scorpia belonged here less than any of them; it was remarkable she’d managed to stay so warm and kind in a kingdom that ruined everyone it touched. Scorpia deserved a better life than that, none of her team did: And Adora was their pathway to it. She was going to get them out she decided, even if it killed her.

Catra soon found herself on the third floor of the building, outside Scorpia’s door; a blank slab of grey-green metal much like every other in the Fright Zone, distinguished only by a small name plate next to the buzzer. This was it; she could do this. She’d led life or death missions into enemy territory, she’d fought in an actual battle, she’d gone toe to toe with real magic princesses, she could press a button, and talk to her friend.

_If you press that button, you’ll kill her._

She pushed her hand to the small red button underneath the ID scanner, and she heard a faint buzz from behind the green door It took seconds for Scorpia’s door to burst open.

“Catra! You’ve never visited my room before, come in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter down. I promise we'll get a little less angsty soon, just got to set things in motion first. Also we got our first little glimpse into Kyle. My idea for the Horde trio is that Shadow Weaver had handpicked them from the pool of cadets to be groomed into a perfect support squad for Adora, but lost interest in them pretty quickly. In Kyle's case he'd shown himself to be exceptionally smart, but Shadow Weaver had never bothered to train him in anything to take advantage of that and it took a competent C.O to realise this and help him find his niche.
> 
> We also have our wheels in motion for the overall plot.
> 
> As ever feedback and constructive critisim is welcome.


	3. Chapter 3: Protection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra takes her plan to the rest of her team, and Scorpia considers her options.

Scorpia was used to being something of an outcast; after all she’d hadn’t really earned her rank and the other Force Captains resented her for it. She’d never won any victories or performed any legendary feats of arms; she hadn’t even excelled in the academy. Her rank had been given to her by birth; she was the last of the Scorpioni royal family, and Lord Hordak had ensured she was treated like it.

But ever since they’d returned from Brightmoon things seemed different. Random soldiers were saluting her, and she had even gotten some nods of approval from other Force Captains. Even Shadow Weaver had commended her, which had never happened before, and felt pretty amazing.

It wasn’t just her either, the Fright Zone was making a point to celebrate the whole of Claw Squadron: Even Kyle was being treated as a hero for bringing in She-Ra, and she couldn’t help but feel happy for her friends. Not simply happy, but proud; Catra especially was finally getting the adulation she deserved, and her wildcat had even brought that traitor Adora to justice.

As she sat on her bunk, thinking about the new life of respect that awaited her, the door buzzed. Unused to visitors, she rose, curious. It was probably just a messenger, maybe the comms were down again. Moments after she pushed the large button next to the door, it opened with a loud ‘woosh’.

Before her stood her best friend, a rush of excitement filled her from head to toe, as she beamed at the young feline before her.

“Catra! You’ve never visited my room before, come in”.

Once the door closed behind them, she pulled Catra into the tightest hug she could manage, with the feline playfully protesting as she always did, she was such a kidder. Once she let go though, Catra’s face didn’t shift to her usual grumpy indifference but to one of worry. “What’s wrong Wildcat?”

“Have you seen the orders?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe we’re going to be honoured publicly like that, I bet Hordak’s going to promote you. Oh, Wildcat I’m so proud of you.”

The scowl she got in return meant that Catra hadn’t come seeking praise, darn it, wildcat was just so difficult to figure out sometimes. Why was she always so bad at these things? There she was wanting to talk about work, and she’d missed that her best friend in the whole of Etheria was upset about something, good job Scorpia.

“No, the other stuff, about Adora?”

“Oh… yeah, I did.” This is what she was upset about, I guess that made sense; they were best friends for a long time, and now she was going to die. There was no need to be jealous of that; it was normal to be sad when a friend died. Even if they had thrown away your friendship and betrayed everything you ever knew. “I’m sorry Catra, I guess you still kinda care about her huh?”

“Kind of,” Catra sat herself on Scorpia’s bunk, “it’s hard to explain Scorpia, I just, I think I’m beginning to get why she left.”

“Oh.” That couldn’t be good, why couldn’t that Adora just leave her friend alone, that must be why she’s here, reassurance. Great, she could do that, she was great at that. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nah, I think I’ve already talked enough; I think it’s time to do something.”

“Wildcat? What’s going on?” The brunette sighed, looking up from her claws for the first time, mismatched eyes meeting her own with a look of determination Scorpia had seen only a few times before.

“I’m leaving Scorpia. I’m saving Adora and leaving the Fright Zone.”

Oh.

“What are you saying, you’re going to betray the Horde?” Her, she was going to betray her.

“I want you to come with me”.

The look on Catra’s perfect face; that determination, was now mixed with what could only be hope: Hope for her to say yes, or maybe for Adora, or maybe even for whatever freedom the feline thought she might find away from this place; she couldn’t be sure, but it was going to be hard to refuse.

“I… I don’t know Catra, that seems like a really bad idea.”

“I know. … It’s just I can’t let them kill her, after everything she did, I still care about her, I think. I don’t know. It made so much more sense when Kyle said it.”

Kyle? That wasn’t good, she was going to have to talk some sense into her.

“So, you’re just going to run away and join the Princesses now?”

“Maybe, it might be our best option outside of here.”

“I’d never fit in with them Catra, my family never did.” Compulsively she found herself raising her pincers for emphasis. It was true; for centuries, her people had been outcasts amongst Etherian royalty, it was no wonder her grandfather had so readily turned to Lord Hordak and his promise of justice all those years ago.

“Then screw them. If they suck, we can just go someplace else.”

She knew Catra didn’t mean it the way she wanted her to, the idea of settling down with her kitten in some little cottage somewhere away from the war, live their lives together. But the hope that it might be possible was enough, the hope that Catra might come to see her the same way was there, maybe it would be enough.

“What about the Rebellion?”

“You think I care about the Rebellion? Scorpia, I just want to… to save her.”

It was the pause. It was one she knew well; she could recall the dozens of times it had spilled from her own mouth when someone had made her justify doing something nice for Catra. It stung as confirmation that the girl she had loved from across mission briefings and battlefields had eyes for another. But at the same time, it all made so much more sense. Catra was willing to risk it all for love. Even if it weren’t the love that she had craved Catra might feel; she couldn’t in good conscience stand in the way of it.

“Okay.”

* * *

Entrapta’s workshop was as hectic as ever; half-built bots lay strewn across the floor, bits of weapon and First-Ones tech cluttered every surface, the dim lighting obscuring the Princess’ most offensive messes as she sat hunched over a workbench, soldering iron in hand; tinkering with something or other.

“Hey Entrapta.” Scorpia’s warm greeting did little to improve the harshness of the dank corner of the Fright Zone, but Entrapta seemed to appreciate it, as she turned, smiled, and bounced in their general direction on her pigtails.

“Friends!” she exclaimed “have you come to see my latest project, it’s incredible I’ve been able to boost the efficiency of my generator by 17%, I hope Hordak lets me apply the same upgrades to the big industrial ones.”

“That’s great, Trap” Catra was doing her best to sound interested, but she wouldn’t have cared about generators even if she were going to be around to use them. As ever though, Entrapta seemed too swept up in her own excitement to even notice the insincerity. “But we’re not here for that.” As the two talked, Scorpia rested her bag on one of the benches, it was filled with everything she and Catra owned in the world, a few trinkets from her childhood and a picture of her moms. Catra had added only a small slip of paper; something small wrapped within.

“Oh?”

“We need to plan a mission, and we need your help.”

“My help, that’s so exciting, I’m sure Lonnie will love the improvements I’ve been working on for the pulse rifle scopes.”

The others began filtering into the room; Lonnie perching herself on a free segment of desk, as Rogelio leaned against a column and Kyle pulled a spare stool into view.

“Do they know?” She asked Kyle who shook his head cautiously, that can’t be good Kyle was supposed to be onboard already. Was he having doubts? Nerves? Fear? Oh gosh maybe he needed a hug.

“Know what?”

“Probably that Adora is going to be executed?” Entrapta piped in. Ah, well that could have gone better. Scanning the room, he had to look at the horror dawning on Rogelio’s face, contrasted to the deep frown plastered on Lonnie’s.

“Yeah, thanks’ Trap” Catra sighed in frustration as Entrapta beamed with gratitude. “Tomorrow, after we get medals or whatever, Hordak is going to kill her in front of the whole Fright Zone.”

“He’ll probably use the new arm cannon I built; I can’t wait to see it in use.” Entrapta began to ramble about the power of the weapon, Kyle scrambled for a nearby waste bin, his face drained of all colour.

“Entrapta, enough!” Catra stopped her from going any further.

“Oh, sorry. I guess that would be pretty bad wouldn’t it, poor Adora.” The engineer shrank away, a little ashamed of what she’d said.

“Yeah, so…” This was going to be the hard part, as proud as she was of her wildcat’s courage in the moment, the fate of their mission would come down to how the others would react to the feline’s next words. “I’m going to bust her out and escape with her. I was kinda hoping you guys might want to help me.”

Kyle was nodding, despite his nerves the little guy seemed to have found some courage. She couldn’t back out now either, so she mirrored his gesture.

“Kyle and Scorpia are in already, it’s just the other three of you.” Catra continued.

Rogelio didn’t say a word, he just pushed himself off his column and marched towards Kyle, stared into the shorter boys’ dark eyes for a second, and placed a firm hand on his shoulder and nodding in her and Catra’s direction. It seemed so easy for the Reptilian; no conflicts or arguments just devotion to the people he loved. it was funny, if it were anything else, she would have reacted the same way, but everything she’d ever known being thrown in the air like a live grenade, and there was no shaking the feeling it was about to explode.

That made four of them.

Entrapta watched the room nervously, she reached for a tool from her workbench and started playing with it as she thought things over. She even went as far as reaching for her mask, pulling it down over her face as she prepared to speak.

“I don’t think I want to leave. I’m sorry.” The steel muffled her voice.

“Trap?” Catra prompted for more, maybe she could still be persuaded.

“I… I just, I don’t know. I’m sorry everyone, it’s just there is so much for me to study here, so much for me to science, I’ve never had an opportunity to work with tech like this, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Catra was clearly disappointed, “I get it, we’re asking a lot, and let’s be honest, it’s all bots and stuff for you here, it’s perfect for you.”

“Trap, you’re going to have to lie about this when they ask you okay?”

“Lie?”

“If they find out that you knew, you might get in trouble.” Scorpia found herself adding; she understood Catra’s line of thought and hoped that the engineer might better grasp the gentler approach.

“Of course, subterfuge, interesting.” Entrapta’s optimism was contrasted by the concerned look Catra shot her. I mean Entrapta was probably a fantastic actor, but if she wasn’t, then who knew what could happen to her.

“We could make it easier.”

“How?”

“We could incapacitate you. You know make it look like you tried to stop us.”

“Amazing idea Catra.” She pulled up her mask and drew her recorder. “Subterfuge log number one: Catra has suggested…” the Force Captain snatched the device from her friend’s hand. tossing it onto the workbench.

“No. None of that. Scorpia can you sting her please.”

“Sting me? Of course, that would be perfect. And I’ve never had the chance to study the effects of your venom before. I can’t wait to catalogue how my body reacts.”

She hadn’t expected Catra to draw her into this, using her stinger on Entrapta felt wrong, but the scientist wanted this, and it would probably save her life.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be okay. I’ll miss you all though.”

“If you ever need us, we’ll keep our frequency open.” Her fellow Princess gave a shy smile, bracing for impact.

Scorpia reluctantly flexed her tail, manoeuvring the tip of her stinger to be in line with Entrapta’s left arm, and then she struck, her friend gave a mild whimper before she collapsed into Rogelio’s arms. Gently he carried her onto the bed in the back of the room.

The silence lingered, grief knowing they would be at least one short when they fled in a few hours time haunting each of them. But there was still one left.

Lonnie hadn’t moved an inch, only stirring when she had no option but to make her decision. She pushed herself from the desk and began to march in their direction; her eyes filled with a venom that she didn’t expect.

“You’re really doing this aren’t you?” She didn’t give them time to answer. “It figures. The second we finally get onto something good; you find some way to ruin it!” Her voice was getting louder, her tone harsher with every step she made towards the four of them, settling a few metres away.

“Lonnie…” Kyle tried to calm her. But the brawny girl him off immediately, jabbing her finger into his chest.

“I’d expect this crap from you.” The blond edged backwards as Ro shifted his weight to put himself between them. Lonnie: seeming to sense the threat wheeled on Catra. “I thought you’d be smarter than this though. Then again you always did put Adora before reason.”

“You need to stop.” She couldn’t let someone talk to Catra like that, even if it was Lonnie.

“Not now Scorpia. You and this one,” Her finger was outstretched again, now about an inch from Rogelio’s snout, “really can’t talk. Turns out you really will just do whatever you’re told. I don’t know why I’m surprised but Entrapta is the only smart one.” She was beginning to run out of steam, her rage began to crumble like a stale ration bar.

She began pacing, head in hands, Scorpia took a half step towards her, hoping that a hug would solve this, when Catra extended a hand to block her, maybe her wildcat was hoping that Lonnie’s anger would burn itself out quicker by itself.

“You idiots are going to get yourselves killed.”

“Are you done?” Catra’s smile was back.

“… yeah.” Her voice completely absent of enthusiasm.

“and?” Catra asked again. The few seconds of silence seemed to last an age before a heavy sigh echoed of the walls of Entrapta’s basement.

“What’s the plan?”

“It’s pretty straight forward; we split into three teams; Scorpia; you need to get the sword. There’s no way Adora will leave without it, and we might need She-Ra to get out of here. It should be easy; just go down to Hordak’s vault and tell them that you’re getting it for Entrapta to study.”

“Right. Easy.” She could do that.

“Lonnie, Ro; you guys are our exit. You need to get us a skiff; it’ll have to be one of the big ones to fit everyone.”

“One of the assault skiffs?” Lonnie queried.

“Yeah, and make sure it’s prepped and ready to go; I don’t think we’ll have much time to hang around.” Catra sauntered to the the bag they’d brought with them. First though, anything you want to bring goes in here, then any extra ration bars or gear you can get hold of.

“Kyle; you and I have the hard job; we need to bust out Adora and get her to the skiff.”

“Wait, what?” Kyle spluttered at the assignment.

“It was your idea right; only fair you get to risk your neck too.” She loved that sly smile, the one that came out just for teasing.

“It wasn’t my idea!”

“Well, you gave me the idea, same thing.” Catra shrugged, resigning Kyle to his fate.

“But…”

“You’ll do fine.” Lonnie smiled at him; Rogelio nodded.

“It’s not going to be easy; I was hoping Trap would be onboard to set off some distraction or something but we’re on our own.” She gestured to the sleeping engineer.

“We’ll manage.” Kyle gave a shaky smile, committing himself before breaking off to explain which of his meagre possessions Lonnie and Rogelio were to salvage.

As they left Entrapta’s workshop for the last time, she gave the Princess of Dryll a final smile, hoping that the super pal trio would find themselves together again soon.

* * *

This would be easy, just go to Hordak’s vault and collect the sword, they would be expecting Entrapta to send someone for it sooner or later anyway. All she had to do was lie to the vault guards and give the sword back to She-Ra and betray everything and everyone she ever knew. Easy. Maybe she’d made a mistake, maybe Catra had. No, Catra knew what she was doing, she was so smart, if anyone could pull this off it’d be her.

She’d been inside the vault a few times, to raid parts for Entrapta from Hordak’s old experiments, prototypes, and abandoned projects. The Force Captain who ran it was an old friend of her family, and seeing him always cheered her up, she only hoped that he wouldn’t get blamed for her little heist.

After entering the doorway, she found a handful of guards, and the bored looking Force Captain. He was an older human with a pale complexion and a prosthetic hand, the steel fingers drumming nonchalantly on his desk as he read from his tracker pad. This was it, game time, it was going to be easy. Easy.

“Scorpia, what can we do for you today, more parts for Princess Entrapta?” The man smiled gently as he noticed her approach.

“Yes, Force Captain Jace, I’ve been sent to collect the sword, She-Ra’s sword, that sword”.

“Of course, I was told Entrapta would need to study it, I was just hoping to have a little longer to admire it.” He pushed himself up from the desk with his mechanical hand, and gestured to the vault door, “If you’d please follow me”.

She’d always liked Jace, he was always far more courteous to her, a far cry from most of the other Force Captains, she had a few vague memories of him from her childhood, when he had served as her Grandfather’s adjutant. He’d been stationed down here since he lost his hand in the battle that had claimed the old man’s life. Modulok’s replacements weren’t as sophisticated as they were now, so he’d retired from active duty and ended up managing the vault. Jace tapped a code into a keypad, and two of the guards turned a large wheel to release the lock.

“I understand you’re to be honoured at the execution tomorrow, alongside young Catra, you may have won us the war by bringing in that turncoat.”

“Thanks… hey how’s your bunkmate getting along, it’s been a while since I last saw her.”

“Iona is quite well thank you, we’ll be hitting thirty years next month”.

“Aww. Congratulations Jace. Be sure to tell her ‘hi’ from me, and that she’s doing great work down in Protein Synthesis; the grey ration bars have never tasted better”.

“I will” Jace chuckled. He led her through the usual array of old machinery and relics before bringing her to her prize; She-Ra’s sword. He had been right; it was certainly gorgeous. Bright gold from pommel to cross guard, with a gem set in its centre, the blade was a single piece of sharpened crystal, carved with ancient glyphs. Jace gingerly picked the weapon up by its hilt, admired it for a moment, before gently wrapping it in a large square of black fabric, smiling as he offered her the package.

“Thank you Jace.”

“Of course, Force Captain, try not to let the Princess damage it; it’s a thing of rare beauty.”

“I’ll be sure to remind her”. Easy, just like Catra said it would be.

As she began to make her way back to the doorway, they heard the feint sound of sirens from the streets above them.

Catra.

“What on Etheria now?” bemoaned Jace as he drew his tracker pad, swiping his flesh hand across a few screens before frantically reading the notification. That couldn’t be good, what should she do? She should probably go. Yup, she should definitely move. She began walking more promptly towards the door.

“Lord Hordak save us, she’s loose.” She turned her head to see Jace was panicking, his eyes almost bulging from their sockets as he continued, “Catra, it’s Catra. She’s betrayed us.” That was when it seemed to dawn on him. “The sword” it was little more than a whisper, inaudible over the sirens, but he might as well have screamed it in her face. He knew, his expression soured with disappointment. “Scorpia, what have you done?” he’d closed the distance now, and discarded his pad, his human hand was reaching for the pistol at his hip as his steel one reached for the enchanted blade.

The two wrestled over the weapon, her pincers made it difficult to grip the hilt, but her strength had forced Jace to abandon his weapon, adding his second hand to the sword. She didn’t want to hurt him; he was a sweet old man, but she needed to get the sword to Catra. They we’re leaving, and every second wasted here would hurt their escape. She gave the sword a final pull, her loose grip causing the blade to turn, slicing through the bag and from the sound of it, and something else. Jace stumbled back barely registering the series of soft clanks as his robotic fingers scattered on the vault’s floor.

Being reduced to one hand for the second time in his life, seemed to awaken something primal in the man, who lunged for her, eyes full of betrayal. Instinctually her tail struck out and pierced Jace’s shoulder and he fell to the ground, his face still twisted with rage, a far cry from the quiet fade Entrapta had experienced. She started running, knocking on the vault door until a guard opened it. Their soldier gasped, clearly spotting Jace lying motionless a few metres behind her. She should have moved him, hidden him, that would have been smart, that’s what Catra would have done.

Once again, her instincts saved her, and her stinger found its mark on them too. But their squad mates rushed her almost immediately. Now this she could do; it was time for the muscle to shine. She cast the sword aside and brought her meaty claws down in swinging axe-handle onto the head of her first opponent, watching as they crumpled instantly. The second lunged from behind the first, only to find themselves caught, entangled in her muscular arms, she lifted them above her head, and hurled the trooper at the third and final of her foes, leaving them both in a heap. She grabbed the sword and ran.

* * *

The skiff garage on the western gate. She had managed to make it there without incident, a couple of soldiers here and there were rushing about over the sirens, so her own haste had gone unnoticed.

She was able to slip through one of the side doors, met by the sight she was hoping for; Lonnie was dragging an unconscious mechanic behind some crates as Rogelio had a pilot locked in a choke hold, the poor guy was clawing at Ro’s arms, but his thick gloves rendered the attempt futile.

“Hey guys, is everything going okay here.”

“Yeah, everything’s under control; you get the sword?” Lonnie’s tone was brusque even for her, the ‘mission’ had to have all of them uneasy she guessed.

“Absolutely, almost no problems at all. I only had to bust up four guys.” One of them an old man who had once served her grandfather.

“Seven on our end.” As if on cue, the pilot in Rogelio’s arms went limp, and the Reptilian hefted him onto his shoulder and made his way behind some shelves.

As she approached, Lonnie had perched herself on a stack of fuel cannisters, lazily reading her tracker pad.

“Any updates on the others?”

“Not yet, besides the alert.” Lonnie barely looked up from the pad as she explained. She found herself taking a seat beside the younger girl, sighing loudly as the doubts she’d been nursing all evening tumbled from her mouth.

“Do you guys think this is a good idea?”

“No.” Lonnie sighed, “but I think it’s a little late to pull out now Scorpia.”

Rogelio growled in disagreement, retorting with a series of guttural sounds she didn’t understand.

“What if Catra hadn’t thought up a plan? Were you going to storm the stage tomorrow?” Lonnie had a solid grasp of his language though.

She’d being trying to pick up more of the Reptilian language, the others could understand most of what little Ro said, but she had never been good at that kind of thing, she even struggled with Etherian sometimes, as if the letters and words just got jumbled up and stopped meaning anything, it’s probably why her academy grades had been so bad. Every time though, she had tried her best; the lesson instilled in her by her moms, rather than the instructors.

 _“If I had too. Adora is family.”_ Rogelio, she thought she got the gist of that one, roughly.

“You wouldn’t get close before Hordak blew your head off.”

All she got in response was a scoff and a shake of the head.

“What about you? You wouldn’t have asked if you didn’t have doubts.” Lonnie rounded back on her, leaving Rogelio to clean up the rest of his unconscious victims.

“I don’t know. We’re risking everything for some girl who betrayed you all, who just ran away and left all of you. What’s to stop her from hurting you all again?”

“Adora’s an impulsive idiot, but she’s not cruel; I don’t think hurting us was what she meant to do. It sucks knowing we were an afterthought but knowing her she probably didn’t think about anything besides saving that village. I doubt she realised she was leaving the Horde until she’d already left. Lonnie’s wistfulness betrayed her stern expression, the memory was clearly still painful.

“I figured that no-one Catra…” loved, the word was loved “… was willing to risk her life for could be all that bad, but it’s still like you said: We finally have everything we could ever want; and now we’re throwing it all away.”

“yeah. I’m not gonna lie, I’m happy with where we are. I finally feel like I’m getting some recognition, y’know. But there’s only so much of the ‘this’ I can take.” She gestured around her. “You saw how Shadow Weaver tried to sabotage us at Brightmoon, she won’t stop until we’re dead, or at least until Catra is. And as much as I don’t want to give up everything we’ve worked for; I don’t know how long we can hold on to it. Maybe it’s better someplace else. In Brightmoon or whatever.”

“It’s just the Horde has been good to me, it’s my family’s kingdom; my history is this place. It feels wrong to abandon it to go live it up with the Princesses who isolated my ancestors.”

“I get it. This place is in my blood too, my parents died for the Horde, and it feels like running away is betraying their memory.”

“Exactly.”

“And giving up that legacy for Adora? After everything she pulled is a lot to swallow.”

“Then why did you agree to do it?”

“Because; at the end of the day, I can still swallow it. “I’m still pretty pissed at Adora for what she did; we used to be friends and maybe she can be again. Even if she can be an ass.”

“Same reason as you I think, my friends asked me.” They shared a smile.

“Catra has a way with words, doesn’t she?”

“Nah, I just knew they’d get themselves killed without me. Besides, I owe Adora an ass kicking, and I can’t collect on that if she’s dead.”

Rogelio rolled his eyes at the idea.

“What? You don’t think I can beat her?” She seemed frustrated with the Reptilian who just shrugged as he leant against a tool cabinet. “A straight fight; no weapons, no magic, then she’s mine.” The only response was Rogelio when laughed that dry, throaty chuckle of his, doubly so when she hurled a pair of welding goggles at him. She smiled at the teasing, it had been a while since she’d seen anything other than frustration or stoicism from either, it was a welcome change.

The lizard-man’s smile drained after a few moments, and he scratched the back of his head, rubbing his fingers over a one of his spines, pressing his finger into one of the points a couple of times. She had no clue what he said next; but from Lonnie’s thoughtful expression it must have had an impact.

“We shouldn’t let the past define us, the only family that matters is each other.” Lonnie translated, little emotion in her voice.

She didn’t have a response either. The three of them just sat in silence until Lonnie decided the time was right.

“I’d better prep the skiff.” she grabbed the sword that Scorpia had leant against the cannisters and climber the ladder onto the skiff. Before Rogelio passed their bag “You guys sort out the doors.”

Scorpia returned to the side door she’d entered though, creating a quick barricade from some shelves and a crate. Meanwhile, Rogelio threw a large switch on the far wall, slowly opening the main doors, their exit to a new life.

Finally, she stopped by the street entrance, opening the door wide enough for the escapees to squeeze through once they arrived. Looking out over the Fright Zone, she found herself willing the fugitives on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was a long one; mostly due to it needing to do some heavy lifting plot wise. The vault scene was on of the first written for the fic and I'm mostly happy with how it turned out despite some significant rewrites. Scorpia was a fun character to write with a lot of quirks to play with, and the idea of her facing betraying the horde in very different circumstance intrigued me.
> 
> This may also have been my way of putting a pin in Entrapta for now. She didn't really fit into the story as I'd planned it originally, but her staying behind is going to play a role down the line, so don't worry she won't be gone forever.
> 
> We got out first tastes of Lonnie and Rogelio too. They'll be explored in more detail later, but I think I got across what I wanted to with them here; with Lonnie I wanted to emphasise her frustration, and an unresolved anger. With Ro; right now you're mostly seeing fierce loyalty and a tenderness for Kyle, but figuring out how to present a character who spoke a different language was an interesting challenge.
> 
> As ever, comments, feedback and constructive criticism are very welcome. Let me know what works and what doesn't so I can get better.


	4. Chapter 4: Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra is reunited with Adora, as the plan goes awry.

Dusk was almost on them as Catra approached the detention block, the final sunset that Adora was supposed to know, it might turn out to be her last too. She let the pale amber rays wash over her and hoped this wasn’t as stupid an idea as she was beginning to suspect. It seemed she wasn’t alone; Catra could feel Kyle’s anxiousness; it radiated off him as he struggled to keep his tray steady, the ration bar atop it trembling as he kept pace beside her.

“Keep it together.” she growled at her co-conspirator. Bringing him might have been a mistake. Despite every improvement he had shown as a technician and pilot; he still had a habit of ‘Kyle-ing thing up’ from time to time. Lonnie or Rogelio might have been better choices in case things went south; they were dependable; more than a match for any common grunt who might get in their way; but Kyle’s tech skills would probably be more useful, if they needed to bypass a lock or something; and after all it had been him who’s accidently kickstarted this whole mess.

Kyle straightened his posture in response, trying to keep his eyes straight ahead as they neared the prison entrance. Adora was being kept on the seventh floor, in a special cell designed to hold Princesses, complete with its own security system and anti-magic wards lining the walls. The guard at the front desk handed her a key card and waved her to a dimly lit doorway off to one side. It led to a dozen small flights of winding stairs; featureless aside from the light fixtures and a maintenance grate hidden in a corner. In turn the stairway led onto an exposed walkway without barrier or handrail. Catra noticed almost instantly that the floor was at an incline; any would-be rescuer would be just as likely to stumble and plummet to their deaths. The only other possible way out would be to leap to the building across the way. its roof was about the right height, but it would be too far for most to jump; even she would struggle to make it, Adora and Kyle certainly wouldn’t. Meaning that their only way out was the way they came in.

Two guards were stood outside the lone door; well equipped with heavy armour, and staves, their belts laden with stun batons and grenades. They were equipped for trouble, but there were still only two of them. That was dumb, she would have bet heavily on Adora against a small squad of rank-and-file Horde troops so two was a joke. She would have assumed Hordak might put a whole unit on duty, maybe even a Force Captain for She-Ra, but no; just two ordinary soldiers.

“Force Captain Catra” the first announced followed by both saluting.

“Only the two of you? You know that’s She-Ra in, there right?”

“No Sir, Force Captain Mantenna has the rest of our squad inside.”

Mantenna? That was good, she could take Mantenna, but it was another weird choice. He wasn’t much more than Hordak’s toady, no real fighting ability, or combat experience. The only threat he posed was supposed to be paralysing eye beams, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Something was wrong here.

“Good, I need to speak with the prisoner, Shadow Weaver believes she has valuable information, I need to get it out of her before the execution.” The two stood aside and allowed them in.

What she saw didn’t surprise her. Adora was on her knees in the centre of the room, chains bound her arms to the ground and a pale green forcefield formed a barrier between the prisoner and a cackling Mantenna; his shrill taunts filling the closed space.

As she drew nearer, she saw Adora break her defiant gaze with her captor, and give her look equal parts exacerbation and resignation, ‘not this, not now’ it seemed to say. So Catra tried to keep her mask up; the smug indifference that had carried her through a hundred dressing downs by Shadow Weaver.

“Mantenna, you’re relieved”.

“No. On whose orders, yes? Lord Hordak himself asks Mantenna to guard the She-Ra, say not to leave. Who? Yes, the little cat must tell?”

She’d forgotten what it was like to deal with this idiot.

“Shadow Weaver’s, I’m to interrogate the prisoner”. Mantenna was making some strange clicking noise now; his look was one of scepticism as if he were looking for a trap in her words, trying to figure out if obedience was in his best interest.

“No.” He decided, “Lord Hordak say for Mantenna to stay, guard traitor princess no matter what. Little cat wants to interrogate prisoner, then she can interrogate whilst Mantanna watches.” The harsh way he spoke bordered on a hiss this time.

It was worth a shot; this was going to go down the hard way. The two fins either side of his head flapped as he stared at her, waiting for her to begin, every few seconds his maw would pulsate or his eyes would bulge, it might normally be an unnerving sight; but she was past such things.

“Then sit in the corner like a good little lickspittle and don’t say a thing.”

“The whelp cannot order Mantenna.”

“I just did. Do you honestly think Hordak will care if I send you back to him missing a few fingers, or do you think he values the sad little monster who brings his meals over his rising star?”

Mantenna considered the threat, glared at her and retreated to his corner, clicking, and muttering as he scuttled. Kyle approached the console; she gave him a nod and a few buttons presses later the forcefield fizzled away.

“Hey Adora.”

“Come to gloat?” It seemed Adora wasn’t in the mood for her games. “To see me off before Hordak has me killed?” Too bad for her, that she had to keep up appearances. She started by drawing her finer slowly across the Princess’ chin, not hard enough for her claw to break the skin, but just hard enough to leave a scratch mark.

“Has you killed?” Her laugh was hollow “He’ll do it himself, I offered to pull that trigger for him, but he wants to send a message to your sorry gang of rebels.”

“You don’t have to do this Catra.” Her voice trembled, fear, anger, and hurt coursing through every word. It might have been enough to sway her, had she not already swayed herself.

“Oh Adora,” she let the word linger on her tongue, grasping her chain firmly and tugging it slightly. Their faces were barely an inch apart now, her fake grin line dup perfectly with Adora’s defiant snarl. “you should know by now; I only do the things I want to do.”

With a powerful strike, Catra’s claws tore the chain bonding Adora to the ground to pieces. it took Adora a few moments to process what she was being asked, and her death glare sank away, her eyes filling with confused hope. She jumped to her feet with all the grace that comes with fatigue, fists at the ready.

It was quick and glorious; the two of them fought like they’d never been apart, almost able to predict each other’s movements. Catra span right and stayed low, avoiding Mantenna’s eye beams. He ate a powerful kick to the chest and stumbled back; despite his extra legs he struggled to keep his balance. Catra’s fist planted itself between his massive eyes and he collapsed with a high-pitched wail. The guard who’d been standing beside him leapt into the fray, but once Catra’s fist shattered his visor, he didn’t stay on his feet for long.

Across the room Adora went right; punching the first soldier in the throat and brought her knee into the gut of the second. Winded; he lunged and Adora sidestepped, wrenching his arm as he passed her, using his own momentum to bring him to the ground, quick stomp incapacitated him.

Even Kyle played his part; thrusting his stun baton into the side of the soldier nearest the door just as Mantenna hit the ground.

“Catra! What are you doing?”

“Saving your life, what does it look like”.

“Catra, what? I… I don’t understand, why are you doing this? Hordak will kill you.”

“I’d like to see him try” It was clear that her glibness was frustrating Adora, but after everything the girl had put her through over the last year, she deserved to suffer a little frustration. Besides Adora looked half-dead from exhaustion, if a little annoyance kept her on her toes; all the better.

“Um… hi Adora.” Kyle interrupted, stumbling from the entrance way, his nerves almost getting the better of him again.

“Kyle?” she turned as if seeing him for the first time, what’s going on.”

“We’re saving you, like Catra said.” He was on the verge of breaking point, but he soldiered on “We’re leaving, we’re saving you and leaving.” She wrapped him in a loose hug.

“You’ve no idea how glad I am to see you. Thank you, thank you both” She smiled at their reunion, despite all that they’d put Kyle through with their pranks and jokes there was something about his goofy grin that was infectious. But she wasn’t ready for Adora to see her happy yet.

“turns out you still had people who care about you, even after you abandoned them.”

“Catra, I’m …”

“We don’t have time for this right now Adora, but I think I’m starting to get why you left, we all are.” Adora gingerly stepped towards her unsure how to proceed, but her oldest friend closed her eyes and wrapped strong arms around her. It felt right, she hadn’t realised how much she had wanted this, how even Scorpia’s squeezes paled compared to this gentle embrace. She had to stop herself from hugging back, as much as she wanted to, so she pushed the girl who had been her world back. “We’re going to have to move quick once we leave here, there are two guards on the door, and I think they’re expecting a rescue from the princesses”.

“Are you sure?”

“They left four soldiers and the guy who does Hordak’s laundry to watch the most powerful person on the planet: it’s a set up”. She sauntered over to were Mantenna had fallen, giving a stiff kick for good measure.

“So, you just sprang the trap”.

“Probably, if I’m right there’ll be a lot more than two guards on the door right now. So, we’re probably going to have to just run for it, follow my lead, lose them in the streets maybe.

“Even if it wasn’t a trap, someone saw us.” Kyle pointed at the camera, that had been mounted on the wall nearest the control panel.

“I may have forgotten about that.”

“Of course, you did.”

“I’ve had a rough day alright; I think you can cut me some slack.”

“I guess, are you okay? “We’re probably going to have to fight our way out of here.”

“Yeah, I’m fine” replied the girl, clearly drained but doing everything she could to hide it. Catra shot her an incredulous look and continued. “We need to head to the right, get to the stairwell, be careful the walkway is slanted. Once we get through the lobby, we’ll have options”.

“Where are we even going”.

“Western Hanger, Lonnie and Ro should be prepping a skiff”.

“I can’t leave without the sword”.

“Trust me, I know how much you care about your dumb sword; I’ve got Scorpia on it”.

Adora looked genuinely gobsmacked.

“Thank you.”

“Thank Scorpia. She the one risking her life for your toy.”

“It’s not a toy Catra… it’s…”

“I know Adora. It’s your magic destiny sword, fairly sure I couldn’t forget the thing that made you traded me for.”

“I didn’t trade you for the sword Catra, I couldn’t just stay once I knew what the Horde was doing, you just wouldn’t let me explain.”

“Guys, we don’t have time for this.” Kyle was strangely authoritative for once; he was right though, so she just rolled her eyes at the two of them.

“You want to know why I’m doing this? A long time ago Adora, we made a promise to each other. Tonight, I’m going to keep it.”

She shouldn’t have snapped at her, they needed to be on the same page right now, but damn did that girl make it difficult. All she could manage was to sigh at the blonde’s shamed expression and crouched over one of their victims. A few moments later and she’d found what she wanted: unfastening the grenade pouch from their belt, liberating the flashbang and smoke grenade, before doing to the same to another soldier.

“Scavenge anything else useful. Kyle pass her the ration bar, she needs to eat.” Kyle passed the tray he’d been carrying to Adora, who unwrapped the grey slab.

“I’d forgotten how bad these tasted.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Princess, the commissary was fresh out of everything else.”

That’s not what I meant, when we get out of here, I’ll show you real food.”

“Whatever that means.” She found herself scoffing at the suggestion, this really wasn’t the time to bicker over food.

“What are you doing now?”

“Seeing what that trap looks like. Be ready to run.”

* * *

Catra opened the door as wide as she dared and slipped through, she wasn’t surprised by what she saw: An entire platoon of troopers stood on the roof of the building across the walkway, pulse rifles trained on the door. At the head, lazily resting on his ridiculous battle axe was Grizzlor, huge and hairy, with a shrewd look on his face. This wasn’t good. The Jungulian Force Captain was one of the Horde’s biggest guns and the soldiers he led were amongst the toughest veterans the Fright Zone had to offer. The man himself was a legend; and from what she’d seen of him sparring, she knew that the stories had to be at least partly true. Even they had She-Ra, it might not be an easy fight.

The two guards who had been on the door had moved too, positioning themselves between her and the stairway, staves at the ready.

_I told you it would end like this._

“What brings you here kittycat?”, the wide grin on his face told her everything she need to know about the situation. “Come to check in on your little friend?”

“I was just passing by, figured I’d stop in for old times’ sake.”

“I bet you was ever so sad when you saw her death order, a real shame, given how Shadow Weaver went on about her.” He stood upright, deftly hefting his weapon onto his shoulder, “we was expecting’ Princesses, but to be honest, I’m glad it’s you, I’ve wanted to ring your neck since you got your badge. Upstart little brat. Out of the academy for five minutes and you think you can run with the likes of me, not a bloody chance.”

“I’m glad you’re getting something out of this furball.”

“No need to ’be so hostile Catra, it’s for the best really, you was never cut out to be a Force Captain.”

_He’s right, you’re nothing._

“Now, tell me, how do you wanna go? Axe or crossbow?” He gestured to the enormous weapon one his men were holding for him; a nasty piece of work; black steel with sharped blades running across the limbs and a snarling dragon’s head decorating the front, the bolts alone were nearly two foot long and she seen first-hand that the weapon could fire them with enough force to send a grown man flying.

“I think you might need to get a little closer for that axe big guy.” He chuckled, and placed his second hand on the handle, swinging a lazy half-circle above his head before tossing it right at her. She dipped low and span to the left as the double-bladed monstrosity embedded itself in the wall of Adora’s prison. Her heart was pounding, the sight of a handful of long brown hairs floating to the ground, proof of just how dangerous her opponent was.

“Not bad, but your aim could use some work, how about I take a turn.” A quick flick of her wrists and she was holding a grenade from her belt. Another flurry of movement and a white cylinder was in flight, sailing over the chasm, and landing at Grizzlor’s feet. Catra shielded her eyes, as a blinding flash of light filled the area, moments later and every trooper was on their knees, removing their helmets, rubbing their eyes.

“Now!” Catra screamed, as her companions poured out of the cell, the three sprinted right, and around a corner, they heard the blinded Grizzlor screaming to give chase, but they were helpless. The two guards on her side of the gap were right ahead of her, she vaulted over the first kicking them in the back; when they landed, a deep voice screamed as he tumbled, losing their balance, and disappearing over the ledge. The second turned to face her, only for Adora to crash into them, shoulder checking them into the wall, slumping beside it in a heap. The three kept running, heading for the staircase that spelt freedom.

“What now? There’ll be more waiting at the bottom, right?”

“The vents?” Kyle suggested, they, always build a hatch into the stairways.” A few moments later and they found the grate, Catra pulling it from it’s hinges with ease.” Adora and Kyle crawled in as she followed, replacing the grate as best she could.

The maintenance shaft was as cramped as they could expect, how Entrapta was able to navigate them so easily was beyond her. Kyle took the lead; accustomed to working in the vents when helping the princess with her work. He led them through the twists and turns, occasionally passing a small, grated window or vent, offering views of empty cells, or letting them into the flustered rant of the Warden as they passed his office. It did her heart good to know that she’d managed to cause a healthy amount of chaos with this. Down a ladder and up another, they heard the booming voice of Grizzlor carry through the ducts behind them; ordering men after them, but they had too much of a lead for it to matter now.

Eventually they found the hatch Kyle seemed to have been looking for, he brought them out on a small balcony. She knew where they were now; they were a few metres above the roof of the armoury, a short drop and they were onto the next leg of their escape.

“Kyle you genius.” She ruffled the boy’s hair affectionately.

“Yeah, that was amazing, thank you.” Adora smiled at him, then at her. She missed that smile, missed the warmth it made her feel in her heart, and the flitter it made her feel in her stomach. But they couldn’t linger in whatever this was just yet, there was a long way between them and the hanger.

* * *

It didn’t take long for the alarms to sound, calling dozens of soldiers to action all around them. Though they remained unnoticed as they scrambled across the rooftops, leaping the narrow gaps between the buildings with ease, even Kyle didn’t struggle with them. It was going well, the run in at the prison seemed like it would be the last of the trouble for now.

They were too exposed on the roof though, all it would take would be for one of Grizzlor’s goons to pick up a pair of binoculars, or a rifle scope and they’d be made. There was a ladder she thought two rooftops over, once they were on the streets, they could use the alleyways for cover, maybe go down into the sewers if they needed to.

The roar from behind them proved her confidence ill placed. Grizzlor had found them somehow and had given chase. He hadn’t called for backup though, it seemed that the trick with the flash bang had been enough to bruise his ego, and he wanted to bring them in personally.

The Jungulian fired his crossbow, the thick steel bolt passing by Adora’s head.

“Faster.” The blonde called, urging the trio on, their pursuer gaining with impressive speed for his size. They needed to get off the roof to neutralise that crossbow, maybe they could lose him in the labyrinth of the alleys. They were on top of one of the barracks now and as expected she could see the top of a ladder poking up from the ledge on the far side.

She raced down the ladder, Adora barely stopping herself from trampling her fingers in the rush. They’d need to disappear into an alley, or a building; something to lose the monster.

“Through here.” Adora pointed to the nearest alley, it would lead them between two of the barracks, it would work. They’d be able to follow it through, lose Grizzlor between some of the buildings when the alley forked.

“Kyle, hurry up.” He dropped the last two rungs of the ladder to keep up, jogging behind them to the turn, when a low whistle filled the air, capped by Kyle’s familiar scream.

She turned back to see him on the ground, his face a mix of fear and pain, he was pinned to the ground by a two-foot-long steel bolt protruding from his left shin, looking for the source she found the gargantuan shape of Grizzlors standing on the rooftop they’d just escaped, his crossbow in hand.

“Nice effort, but this ends here.” He didn’t bother with the ladder, instead jumping the two stories, landing cleanly. “Now you’ve got a couple of choices kittycat. You can surrender and die cleanly to Hordak in front of the Fright Zone tomorrow, or messily in some alley to me.”

“Run, you have to get out of here, both of you.” Kyle pleaded.

“Not a chance.” Catra sauntered over to her friend. “This is gonna suck, she smiled at him before pulling the bolt from his leg with surprising ease. The noise her friend made as he tried to muffle his own scream, was unique. A high-pitched whimper, that bordered on animalistic.

“I’m gonna have to go with the messy alley death. If you think you’re up to it.” She twirled the bolt like a baton, “Adora get him out of here, I’ll catch up.” She meant it, or at least she hoped she did; after all she didn’t have to beat him, just escape him, then get back to Adora and Kyle, and that wouldn’t be the hardest thing she’d done today. Out of the corner od her eye she could see Adora disappearing into the alley, Kyle limping with an arm over her shoulder.

The big man moved first, setting his crossbow down or a nearby crate with surprising grace, not that it lasted. Before it had been down two seconds before he was rushing her with his shoulder; he was faster than she imagined possible for his size, if she had been anyone else in the Fright Zone, she’d have just taken one hell of a blow, but her natural agility saved her again, leaping backward a few steps.

but it was barely enough. Grizzlor’s reach was insane, and with the force behind them, she couldn’t afford a single hit. She made a swipe at him with her free hand, leaving a bloody scratch down his meaty arm.

His fist brushed her ear again, she couldn’t keep this up for long, and she’d need to get to them quickly, but leapt against the wall as another swing came her way, her feline agility allowing her to practically rebound off the surface. She came down hard on the Force Captain’s head. He roared in pain as her foot pressed into his face.

She drove the bolt downwards, hoping to put an end to the Force Captain, but he shifted his weight, so it only lodged itself in the flesh of his shoulder, and not deep enough to even force a wince. Changing tac, she pushed off his head as if her were a steppingstone, throwing herself at the ladder that had brought the trio to the alley minutes before.

“Coward!” Grizzlor called after her, but he didn’t take the bait. He shook the cobwebs and pulled the bolt from his shoulder. Instead of scrambling after her, began to follow the trail of Kyle’s blood. Forcing her to follow too, stalking quietly from the rooftop, not letting the hulk see her, he seemed to have assumed she’d fled, so there was no need to let him think otherwise.

Her quarry turned a corner, and chuckled. Damn, he must have found them, she caught up in moments and saw for herself. Adora had fashioned a tourniquet from the sleeve of her jacket; she rose and made sure to put herself between the wounded boy and their pursuer, despite hoe ragged she seemed, Adora was determined to play hero.

“The kittycat ran, up and left you.” Adora only scowled in response, did she believe him? Couldn’t have that.

The mass of muscle and fur began to move down the narrow alleyway, so yet again she took a running leap. This time she hit him square in the back, a flawless dropkick with both feet. He didn’t have a chance to react, or room to manoeuver so he just stumbled forward, right into Adora’s uppercut.

The blonde followed up with a series of body shots, every ounce of energy she had left was being beaten into Grizzlor. She joined the fray, landing a powerful kick to his gut, doubling him over, putting his head squarely into range, so delivered a second kick right between his furious eyes.

“Adora!” It was Kyle, he was pushing himself up the wall where he’d been left slumped and tossed her the stun baton he had on his waist. The blonde caught it, flicked the switch, and drove it into Grizzlor’s exposed face. He fell backwards against the alley wall, finally defeated.

“That was satisfying.” She found herself quipping.

“He said you left?”

“Never.” She wanted to reassure her friend, but it turned to venom in her mouth. “I’m not you.” The look of dejection had turned out to be nowhere near as satisfying as she’d hoped. The blonde just groaned and handed Kyle back his weapon.

“I’d say to leave me behind, but I tried that already. “Kyle smiled weakly, “And I really don’t want to stay here.”

“Stop whining” Catra found herself chuckling at him, at least he was still in high spirits. “We’ll get you out of here.” They each took an arm, holding him between them enough support so he could limp along with them.

They were able to move between the alleys easily enough, but the final stretch would take them into the streets. There were soldiers everywhere now, occasionally they would need to duck behind a doorway or waste disposal unit, more difficult that it would have been had Kyle been able to support himself, but she couldn’t complain, she’d brought him along, and it would have been even harder had it been Lonnie or Rogelio who had gotten hurt. It had been Kyle who’d remembered the vents too, he’d more than earned the right to slow them down a little.

She recognised the Force Captain directing traffic as Blast, an athletic man with a thick black beard and cannon mounted to his shoulder, he oversaw the Horde’s Armoured divisions, and was generally the guy that got called in when Shadow Weaver wanted a town removed from the map.

She reached for her belt again; one smoke grenade and one flash bang. The former would shield their exit well enough, after all Blast couldn’t chase what he couldn’t see but it would alert him and everyone else to their presence, the last leg would be a sprint. On the other hand, the flashbang would only catch those close to it, everyone else would be unaffected and free to chase them down.

“Okay.” She turned to her friends, no. to her friend and Adora, “Get ready to go as quickly as you can. Adora nodded, the look of grim determination that she’d been wearing since escaping the detention block remained unfaltering, Kyle just smiled weakly at her with his tired eyes.

She threw the grenade a little ahead of Force Captain, none of the soldiers noticing until grey smoke began to plume from the metallic cylinder.

Carrying Kyle between them they moved as quickly as they could, rushing past the confused Force Captain, who briefly locked eyes with her, the confusion changing to realisation, and then to anger, he called for his soldiers to give chase, but before any could they were lost to the smoke.

The calls of dozens of soldiers echoed behind them, the occasional blast from a pulse rifle exploded into the ground at their heels, a huge red bolt of energy that could only have come from Blast’s shoulder cannons sailed past them at one point; reducing a lone trooper who tried to block them to a smoking crater.

They were close now, Scorpia’s head peaked briefly out from behind the door ahead. Good she had made it, which meant Lonnie and Ro must have held up their end too. They were going to make it, just a little further. They might have half the Fright Zone on their tails, but she dared to hope, dared to imagine that this mission wouldn’t end in her death, in the death of her friends. So close.

* * *

The three of them had made it inside the hanger, Her and Adora practically dragging Kyle, all of them silent aside from laboured breathing or the occasional moan of pain from their injured friend, but now was not the time to be gentle. Scorpia closed the door behind them. A moment of relief swept over them, as they rested Kyle against a row of shelves, the three of them happy to catch their breaths, for a moment.

“You made it” Scorpia cried as they shuffled into the hanger proper.

“Yeah, it was a trap for the Princesses though, Grizzlor was wating for us, and now half the Fright Zone is on our tails. Did you get the sword?”

“Yeah, of course, it’s on the skiff.”

“Hi, Scorpia.” Adora was awkward in her greeting, “thank you so much for helping us.”

“She’s my friend.” Scorpia shot a soft look in the feline’s direction, “They all are. They wanted to save you, and I couldn’t say no.”

“Thanks all the same.”

“Just, just treat them right this time Adora. Earn this.”

“I will.”

Rogelio was jogging over to them, a concerned look on his face, eyes locked on Kyle. He didn’t get close before Adora pulled him into a brief hug, thanking him profusely, as the lizard man stifled a smile.

“Are you guys ready?” Lonnie’s head emerged from the skiff. “I do not like the sound of that mob outside.

“Lonnie, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet, we need to go. The soldier ran a hair across the stubble on the side of her head, failing to hide the warmth that was creeping into her eyes.

“Good job Scorp, think you can get this klutz up there?”

“Hey, that’s not fair it wasn’t my fault this time.”

“Enough complaining, Scorp if you wouldn’t mind.”

The Princess picked Kyle up from his place by her side, cradling him like a baby, jogging to the skiff and passing him to Lonnie, who hefted his form onto the deck. Rogelio had liberated an extra med kit from one of the cupboards, hurrying back to the skiff to tend to his friend.

“Looks like I’m driving then.” Lonnie sighed.

“Just until the meds kick in. Hit me with that painkiller Ro, I can do this.” Rogelio set about his work, pressing a surette into the young man’s neck.

“Wait, Kyle can fly this thing?”

“Better than any of us.” She found herself explaining, a small prideful smile crept to her lips, though she bit it back once she noticed Adora doing the same.

“Great let’s get going.” They shouldn’t have wasted time with reunions and small talk. The street-side entrance burst open and soldiers began pouring into the far side of the room. Lonnie was scrambling into the pilot’s seat of their bulky escape vehicle when it struck her what was happening.

They were inside now, a small group were charging them, Blast stepped through the wreckage with another familiar Force Captain: A brutish slug man with mottled green skin and an enormous mouth known as Leech, supposedly capable of draining anyone of their life energy in minutes.

“Adora, Scorpia move.” It was becoming clear that they weren’t going to get the time they would need to start the engine; the troopers were on them. ‘You’re going to get them out,’ she remembered, ‘if it kills you.’

She just needed one last chance to see that face, those eyes.

“Adora, get on there, I’ll hold them off. Get to Brightmoon, take care of these guys. They were always supposed to be your squad after all.”

“Catra, no! You have to come with us. Please.”

“There’s no time. Just promise me, you’ll look out for them.”

“I… I promise.” The look on her face was enough to make her want to join them; but the universe had other plans, call it comeuppance for all the terrible things she’d done in her life; having to give up her own life, deny herself the freedom she’d promised herself a few hours earlier, but if it meant Adora would live, if it meant Scorpia and Kyle, and Lonnie and Ro would make it, then she could handle not being around to see it.

“Don’t break this one okay.”

This was it; this was going to be it for her. She knew this was a possibility, but damn if she was going to let them take Adora, or Scorpia or any of the others whose lives she’d risked with this dumb rescue. She knew what she had to do and took a step towards the approaching battalion. Only to be pulled into Scorpia’s death grip.

“I can’t let you do it wildcat, not after everything else. This is your chance to be happy.” There was a sharp pain in her right arm, and then she couldn’t move, couldn’t feel anything but a dull ache over her whole body. A second later and she was being passed from the Scorpia’s arms to Adora’s, powerless to resist.

“She’ll be okay; it was only enough venom to make her go a little limp, she’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

“Scorpia, don’t you can still come with us.” Adora’s practically screaming at the hulking hybrid as she gave the two of them a warm smile.

“Make this count, make sure she’s happy. She deserves that much.”, And then Scorpia was charging the soldiers, embracing the fate she had meant for herself moments before. Adora was dragging her stupefied form onto the skiff, Rogelio’s thick hands helping to pull her up. In the distance she saw Scorpia wreaking havoc on the crowd of enemies, as the two Force Captains pushed their way into the ruckus.

The engine roared to life, and Lonnie put all her weight on the throttle, and they sped from the hanger, from the Fight Zone and from Scorpia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn this was a long one, probably the longest in the whole fic. The lengths should drop of back to around 3K or so after the next chapter. I hope.
> 
> This was not an easy write, whilst the breakout scene in Adora's cell was the first thing written for the fic, pulling it together with everything else was much harder, to the point I don't think the chapter quite works how I wanted it to; the escape sequence and showdown with Grizzlor are a bit rushed but I don't have the stomach for another pass on them at this point. It was also a wake-up call that I might need to start looking for a beta reader.
> 
> Grizzlor was fun to play with and I got to include cameos for Leech and Blast from the 80's show, which along with Mantenna and the reference to Modulok in the last chapter should give away that I'm mining the old stuff for side characters and details. With Grizzlor; I wanted to paint him as dangerous, a genuine threat to our heroes and giving him a sense of humour with a cruel streak just made him fun for Catra to play off of.
> 
> Finally there's Scopia. What is there to say other than sorry. I needed there to be a cost for the rescue, for something to go wrong; and she felt like the choice that would have the most impact for Catra and Adora. It may also have been a bit cheap to set her up as a POV last chapter knowing this was coming, but sometimes you need to play with red herrings.
> 
> But despite being one member down, our squad have made it out of the Fright Zone, and are speeding towards the stuff I'm excited to explore.
> 
> As ever comments, feedback and constructive criticism are very welcome.


	5. Chapter 5: Circling Vultures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and her friends flee the Fright Zone, grief weighing heavy on their minds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't believe I've passed 1000 hits on this fic. Thanks everyone.
> 
> Also a quick warning there is a little more violence in this chapter than previous, nothing graphic but a few descriptions of minor wounds and injuries, mentions of blood, that kind of thing.

Adora was struggling to stay on her feet. She needed to move, climb on the skiff with the others, and get out of here. But the Horde had broken in, and troops were flooding the far side of the room, a rising tide of dark armour and green visors. Catra was saying …something to her, but it was hard to concentrate on the words, all she could really hear were the cracks in the feline’s voice.

“Take care of these guys.” That was the first part that she could make out, but what did she mean? Why would she need to take care of them? What about Catra? No. the realisation hit her, no. She couldn’t let her stay behind. Catra had done enough; she was going to take her to Brightmoon, show her the gardens, show her the food, show her parties and everything else the Horde had ever denied them. No.

“Catra, no! You have to come with us. Please.” They could still make it, all of them, they just needed to get on the skiff, and they’d be fine. Everyone would be fine.

“There’s no time. Just promise me, you’ll look out for them.” No, this wasn’t happening. She couldn’t leave Catra here again. Not after everything that happened since she’d sauntered into her cell, tail swishing as she walked, Kyle in tow, and flipped everything she had come to understand about their lives around. It should be her who stayed. It was her Hordak wanted after all, and she should be the one Hordak got, not Catra, not any of them. If someone had to stay behind it was going to be her. Saying goodbye to them was going to be rough, they’d not want to know that they’d just risked their lives for nothing. But if it was her or them, her or Catra; then there was no other choice she could ever make.

Her legs stayed rooted to the ground, her body betraying her will. She knew that she’d collapse well before she made it to the soldiers, and even if she did; in this shape she wouldn’t delay them for more than a few seconds. But it didn’t matter, if it meant she could spare Catra, she had to move, had to push through her fatigue. But it was no good.

“I… I promise.” What was she saying, she was She-Ra. She couldn’t just admit defeat like that, how was she supposed to a hero if she couldn’t save one person?

“Don’t break this one okay.” She couldn’t even speak anymore, the salted tear that gently tricked onto her lips, the only reminder she even had a mouth at all. All the effort in the world to save her friend, every ounce of strength she had left, and nothing. Just silence. She couldn’t even manage a goodbye, she just stood, watched, and cried.

Then Scorpia was there. Hugging Catra, saying her own goodbyes.

“I can’t let you do it wildcat, not after everything else. This is your chance to be happy.” What? That wasn’t a goodbye. Well, it was, but the wrong kind, and then the larger girl’s tail struck Catra’s arm, and she went limp. What was happening, had Scorpia sold them out? Had they been led into a trap like the one in her cell?

Before she could react to Scorpia’s betrayal; the limp feline form was being forced into her arms, it was everything she could do to raise them up, she fought every ache her muscles could unleash upon her to keep her friend steady.

Scorpia gave her a sad look and then understanding hit her again; It was going to be Scorpia who stayed. She couldn’t let that happen either; she wasn’t worth somebody else’s life even a stranger’s. Catra was always stubborn, but this girl might listen to reason if she could just tell her. The taller woman was talking about venom, but it just seemed to float past her. Helplessness was overtaking her exhausted body, she had to fight her own weariness, say something. Do something.

“Scorpia, don’t you can still come with us.” The words tumbled out of her, as if the dam holding her mouth closed had suddenly burst. Perhaps her adrenaline was finally kicking in, or maybe it was just knowing Catra was out of danger, but she was somehow lucid again. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair. Scorpia always seemed a gentle soul even when they’d fought.

“Make this count, make sure she’s happy. She deserves that much.” There was a sad smile on the woman’s face, her strong jaw on the verge of quivering and a tear in the corner of those big black eyes. And then she was gone, charging towards the mass of soldiers, screaming in their faces, claws swinging.

* * *

When she opened her eyes, she was on the skiff, slumped against a supply locker at the rear of the deck, Catra besides her. There was no telling how long she’d been out, but it couldn’t have been too long, they were still in one of the Fright Zone canyons. It had been long enough to replay the details of their escape a dozen times over. Every repeated dream ended in the same inescapable sacrifice, and her watching helplessly as she let down her friends again.

Thinking about it in the waking world was different, there was just so much for Adora to process; in less than two day’s she’d fought a battle, been captured, sentenced to death, and then rescued by her former best friends. Now they were fleeing from their childhood home at high speed. It was a lot. She tried to push the events from her mind, but they kept spinning back, the blank space she tried to overtake her thoughts with would ask how she was going to explain this to Bow and Glimmer, or how the Horde might try to retaliate in some way. Desperate for any other thoughts she stared across at the vista besides them.

The canyons and wasteland soon gave way to plains and crops of woodland; the dusty savannah that separated that Fright Zone from the Alliance kingdoms and the Whispering Woods. The last amber rays of daylight would have faded completely in less than an hour, then every possible route would become more dangerous, the night was filled with beasts and bandits, and whatever else stalked the territory.

She had to assume they were going the long route; there was no way Lonnie would risk the Whispering Woods. They had to be heading North West; through Plumeria, before turning south to Brightmoon. They’d probably get pretty far before encountering a patrol, given how thinly stretched the Rebellion was.

If they did run into a patrol, how would that play out? Would she be able to vouch for them or would the freedom fighters just see a gang of Horde soldiers aboard a Horde skiff and arrest them without question? They’d have to listen to her right, not drag them off to some dungeon. She wouldn’t let that happen; she’d even stand up to Queen Angella if she had to, she’d had promised that much to Scorpia, and she was done breaking promises.

Scorpia. Part of her had come to hate her, or at least envy her; the woman who had taken her place as Catra’s best friend and her slot on the team. The muscular scorpion girl had fit into the role so neatly it was hard to not think of her as a replacement. Even the way she looked at Catra made her ache; not that she understood it, envy she supposed, every time she meant to ask Bow about it, she’d shied away, choosing to use the frustration it stirred in her during battle instead.

But now the Fright Zone’s heir was gone. She had died to save her and all she had done was watch. Her exhaustion, her confusion, her need to protect the limp Catra: All just excuses, if she’d been strong enough, she could have saved Scorpia, saved everyone like she was supposed to. Instead, she just stood there and watched her charge without a moment’s hesitation. The platinum hair and sombre smirk engraved themselves into her brain, the woman’s last words repeating themselves anytime she stopped to think, ‘Make this count, make sure she’s happy. She deserves that much.’

The loss was clearly weighing hard on the others too. Scorpia might not have meant much to her, but she had been their friend. They were visibly shaken; Rogelio focussed on wrapping Kyle’s bloody leg in bandages, and Lonnie starring diligently at the road ahead, desperate to keep their minds from grief. Kyle just stared into space, as if trying to piece together the puzzle. Catra though; was devoid of any emotion, the paralysis still in effect, conscious but unable to move; a prisoner in her own body.

“I’m sorry” she said at last. But was met with silence. “About Scorpia, if I’d known what was going to happen, I’d never have…, I’d have…”

“Adora stop.” Lonnie’s tone was fierce despite the emptiness of her eyes. “Scorpia was a soldier. She knew what she signed up for, we all did. Saying sorry won’t bring her back.” She had no response for that, Lonnie wasn’t wrong; when you went off on a mission, you might not make it back; every kid in the Fright Zone learnt that much. But this time the mission had been her, Scorpia had died for her.

“I don’t understand, we were never friends, and she died to save me, I just…”.

“She didn’t.” Catra’s voice surprised her, she hadn’t noticed that the paralysis had worn off, she had seemed catatonic a few minutes earlier. “She didn’t sacrifice herself for you, or for the mission, or any of that junk. She did it for me. I was about to pull the same thing, and I guess she figured out the only way to stop me.”

“Catra… I” suddenly it made sense, to willingly give up your life for another, to care about them that much was powerful. She lingered on Catra’s idea of doing the same for her but forced the ideas aside for simpler thoughts.

“That’s who she was” Catra continued. “She was kind, and willing to do anything for me, and all I ever did was yell at her. She didn’t even want to leave the Horde, I dragged her into this mess. She was finally getting some respect and then I come in with a big stupid plan to save you, and I get her killed.”

“I’m so sorry Catra.”

“No. You don’t get to apologise for this, you don’t get to make this about you too. It’s not your fault we lost Scorpia, it’s mine. I dragged her along, when I should have just let her stay in the Fright Zone, she’d have gotten over me leaving.” Catra was on the verge of tears now, “Or maybe I shouldn’t have rescued you at all.” she tried to hide her watering eyes behind her anger as she looked at Adora.

“I never asked for you to save me.” She meant to snap back at Catra, but it came out as a whimper. “If I’d known what was going to happen, I’d have told you to leave me in that cell.” She didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but it was true; all they’d done is traded Scorpia for her, and if the Princess was even half the person, they all seemed to think she’d been, that trade was far from fair.

“You think that would have stopped me?” Catra was struggling to make eye contact, alternating between staring at her feet and the horizon before them, but the words that followed were meant for her ears. “I’m going to make them pay for her. I’m going tear down their whole world for her. Her name is going to be the last thing Hordak, Shadow Weaver and the rest of them ever hear.”

“Does this mean you’re joining the Rebellion?”

“It means I’m burning the Fright Zone to the ground. If you and your Princess buddies want to help carry the matches, I won’t stop you.”

“Enough with the crusades, both of you.” This time Lonnie was the one shouting. “I didn’t sign up for your lost cause, Adora. And I’m sure as hell not going on some suicide mission against my own people.”

“So, you’re just going to let Scorpia die for nothing.” Catra shot back.

“Scorpia died so we could get away, I’m not going to dishonour that by dying on some revenge fuelled rampage.” Lonnie all but spat the words in Catra’s face, taking her eyes from the road to shoot a poison glare.

Before they could argue any further, they interrupted by a gruff roar from Rogelio, as he pushed past them, leaping onto the turret, the women turned to investigate the commotion, they saw the shapes on the horizon.

More Skiffs.

* * *

There were five of them in total, four of the small recon models followed by an assault craft; identical to their own, the formation of green steel was gaining with concerning speed.

“Kyle, you good to drive?” Catra’s voice shifted to that of a commander; strong, authoritative.

“Yeah, I think I can handle that.”

“Then get going. Ro: test your range, and Lonnie see what’s in that weapons locker. She watched Rogelio span the mounted gun around to face their pursuers, firing a few shots to test his capabilities, as Kyle limped to the alcove that made up the cockpit, Lonnie vaulting the control panel to allow her friend to take the helm.

Adora had to admit she was impressed with how Catra had instantly took control of the situation, Lonnie was rummaging through the locker near the turret, passing Catra a pistol before checking the scope of their lone pulse rifle. On instinct, Adora reached for her sword, but Catra stopped her.

“I don’t think She-Ra’s going to be much use unless they got a lot closer.” Lonnie seemed to agree, placing one of the pistols in her hands.

“Okay, get ready to light them up those scouts as soon as they’re in range, Kyle see what you can do about some evasive manoeuvres?”

“Yes sir.” The boy began adjusting controls.

“So, Kyle knows evasive manoeuvres huh?” She aske trying to feign surprised.

“I told you he’s a good pilot.”

“So, all he needed was a good C.O?” Catra blushed at the accusation. Though she lost her chance to retort as Rogelio’s turret let loose its first volley.

“Here we go!” Lonnie was in her element now too, and she was one hell of a shot. Even as a cadet she’d been their best marksman, scoring hit after hit on the soldiers manning the skiffs. By comparison all she was managing was to bounce pot-shots off the hulls. She was grateful that Rogelio was able to keep up a supressing fire, preventing most of their attackers from firing back.

Their first real luck came quickly as Lonnie took out the pilot for one of the smaller skiffs, which immediately careened out of control and came to a sudden stop. The second went down quickly too, as one of Rogelio’s volleys managed to hit something important, the engine block bursting into orange flame. Forced out of formation, the third scout skiff skittered into a ditch, though Adora couldn’t be sure if it were Lonnie or Catra who’d shot the pilot.

“Ro; focus on the big one’s turret, if he gets close enough to do any damage, we’re done.” Catra ordered, but his affirmative growl was cut short by a howl of pain from the other side of their skiff: Lonnie was writhing on the deck, frantically pawing at her shoulder; the blackened wound had mostly cauterised itself where the pulse had hit her, but there was still a thick trickle of blood oozing from it.

“I’m okay” she grunted, pushing herself against the side of the skiff. Adora crawled too her, propping herself onto one knee to check the wound; and despite the charred circle of ruined flesh; it wasn’t that bad. She was out of this fight though, there was no way she could hold a weapon right now.

“Just keep pressure on it, you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah” she nodded, gesturing to the rifle, “take that, see if you can hit something” The injured girl chuckled quietly and Adora regained her position next to Catra, but still failed to make any of her shots count. She hadn’t touched a pulse rifle since leaving the Horde and her skills had clearly deteriorated. As she continued to struggle, the final scout skiff ground to a halt as Catra winged the pilot, causing his to crash into a nearby rock.

“That big one is getting close, focus on the pilot and gunner, or they’ll rip us to shreds.” Catra was yelling as the assault skiff drew closer. They could make out its crew now. Vultak; a famous Force Captain whose squadron of winged raiders were one of the Horde’s deadliest units. She’d seen him before when he’d hosted a special training session for the senior cadets: He was a tall wiry man with pewter-grey skin and a sharp chin. She recalled the way his crimson eyes had glistened unnervingly, framing his near permanent grin and of course, his pride and joy were on full display; two enormous jet-black wings protruded from his back. Worryingly the Force Captain was not alone, a half dozen of his raiders stood around him, wings folded to their backs; ready to take flight at a moments notice.

Almost on cue, Vultak and his raiders launched themselves into the air, the skiff still pursuing, manned by a handful of regular troopers. The raiders were graceful fliers, fast too; they didn’t have time to do anything but steel themselves for their arrival. The first landed behind them, heading straight for Kyle, stun baton in hand. But they had sacrificed their footing for a wider swing, so when Kyle’s attempt to dodge caused the skiff to swerve, the raider stumbled into Adora’s path, she barely had to aim when she sent an energy pulse hurtling into his chest and sent them tumbling overboard.

She caught a glimpse of Rogelio wheeling the turret around to shred the wings of the next raider, but more had landed onboard now: One was swinging a blade at Catra, forcing her backwards towards a second with arms outstretched. Before they could grab her, Lonnie to sprang to her feet and barrelled into them, send all four sprawling across the deck. Turning from the carnage; she saw Vultak had joined the action himself; wrestling Rogelio from the turret, racing in their direction she was forced to vault her Reptilian friend as he was tossed to her feet. She locked eyes with their assailant; the deep red orbs pierced her soul, making her feel like prey meeting with a predator. But she had run enough today, she was going to fight, fight for her friends, she dropped the rifle and entered a stance.

“Brace!” they heard Kyle scream from the cockpit, Vultak spread his wings, and jumped backwards from the skiff; his airborne form visible for but a few seconds before her world began to spin. Then came a horrific noise as metal bent and broke, A sudden jolt followed and then a few moments of weightlessness. Finally, an almighty thud with a harsh impact.

* * *

By the time Adora came to her senses she was all but consumed by pain; she could barely feel her arm aside from a dull ache and her mouth was full of blood, the metallic flavour bringing back the painful memories of training sessions and roughhouses gone too far. She attempted to wipe her face with her sleeve only led to her shirt coming away a dark crimson.

She hadn’t noticed during the chase, but they’d made it to the outskirts of Plumeria or near enough for the yellow grasses to turn to green, and for lush forests to spring up on either side of the road, which even itself was now more mud and stone than the dry dirt she’d seen before. Though now that mud was strewn with what had once been a Horde assault skiff, green metal littered across the open space.

From the look of it, she was the first of the survivors to her feet, amongst the wreckage she could see Vultak’s squad strewn about, and there! Rogelio was lying against the upturned turret, his bright green face made him an easy spot even with her impaired vision. He was gravely wounded with a nasty gash across his head, and a large patch of his chest was exposed; bright pink where his scales had been torn away.

“Ro! Rogelio” they’re here, come on”, it took two more slaps to rouse him, and she had to help him to his feet, which given his size wasn’t easy. They found Lonnie too; barely conscious but very much alive, pinned under one of Vultak’s goons. Kyle, they found trapped under part of the control unit, with a dislocated shoulder. Catra was the last, she was stumbling groggily towards them, dragging the sword behind her.

“Catra, come on we’ve got to get out of here”.

A dark shape flashed from their flank and a viscous punch floored Catra almost instantly, Vultak had found them. Adora threw caution to the wind, unwilling to let everything her friends had done for her go to waste. She was sprinting, jumping at the winged Force Captain, and swinging at his face. But it didn’t last long; her fatigue overcame her once again, and Vultak tossed her to the ground, moments later and Vultak’s boots were becoming acquainted with her ribs. She could just about make out Rogelio charging towards them, but he was tackled by a pair of soldiers. The final skiff had caught up she realised. It’s surviving crew were surrounding the wreckage.

“Tie these ones down and load them on the skiff. We’ll be rewarded for this one lad’s, she recognised Vultak’s nasal voice, and knew it was over.

It had been less than a day since she’d last been, She-Ra but it felt like months. The first hours had been the cold stare of Hordak, the spiteful machinations of Shadow Weaver and near constant clicking and complaining from Mantenna. Then Catra had come, her Catra, the one she’d begged the universe for only hours before had waltzed into her cell, Kyle in tow and had said one little sentence that had changed the world.

‘you should know by now; I only do the things I want to do.’

What did she want to do now? That was an easy question, the same answer it was anytime it was asked; keep people safe. Right now, the people who needed protecting were her own, she’d recklessly charged into the Fright Zone to save Bow and Glimmer one time, surely, she could manage to fight one Force Captain to save her childhood friends.

Her mind forced her to relive the choices she’d made, the ones that had left the four of them behind, the looks of betrayal each had given her on the battlefield, their pain was beyond her comprehension, but still it managed to sting her, hurt her in a way that could only drive her to find some way of fixing everything. But she had a different kind of hurt to contend with, she was face down in the dirt, aches in every limb, and barely conscious after the crash, and now Vultak had her, had them. The sword was nearby, abandoned in the mud, where Catra had dropped it. If she had been smarter, she should have grabbed for it instead of the villain himself, but no; she’d been stupid and emotional, just like Light Hope had warned her and it was going to cost her everything unless… And there it was, right where she’d left it; two or three metres away, only the hilt and pommel visible from her position, but still very much the Sword of Protection.

Her blurred vision and ringing ears did their best to obscure the situation, but Vultak was kicking the downed Catra in the stomach, punishing her for making them chase her from the sound of his taunts. His soldiers were wrestling with the others, but she couldn’t help them, not without the sword, she blocked out their cries, and began to crawl, she was getting close now.

Nearly.

She reached out her fingers, felt them brush against the pommel, a little closer, praying none of the troopers would notice her, a few centimetres, almost.

There.

She had it. She pulled the sword towards her, and once she had it proper, dug the blade into the soft earth, and used it to pull herself to her feet. She’d been lucky the thugs had been distracted by the chance for cruelty and had ignored her struggle. She lifted the blade above her head.

“For the Honour of Greyskull.”

The light filled her, the power was as intense as it ever was, coursing through her like a golden wave. Her fingers tingled, almost numb as they tightened around the ancient weapon, beckoning forth the planet’s avatar, each of her scratches fading into the glow as it consumed her. Even her exhaustion withered into a newfound energy as She-Ra overtook her own consciousness. It wasn’t as if She-Ra was a different mind possessing her, more a separate will compelling her to action, she remained in control but somehow her actions were still not quite her own, as if her personality was muted save for a force of anger and righteous justice.

Adora could feel her arms trembling with rage, but She-Ra’s were unnervingly still, their attackers were looking at her now; Vultak and his men. She recognised the fear in their captain’s eyes, it was clear he wanted to run; but something kept him rooted to the spot; loyalty? Duty? Fear? It didn’t matter. She was charging him now, fighting to keep herself from swinging the sword at his neck and taking his head to mount above Brightmoon’s gate. No, that wasn’t her, it had to be She-Ra’s inherent rage, she wouldn’t let herself be used to murder, fighting the rage as she ran, she stopped just short of Catra’s prone form, and pulled her arm back, for a moment time stopped, she heard a single word.

“No.”, it fell from Vultak’s thin lips, so quiet, no-one but the two of them would have heard it, not even Catra. Then fist met chest, and Vultak was forced to redefine his understanding of flight. He landed with a sickening crunch against a tree on the other side of the road and stopped moving. The soldiers had stopped handling her friends now, half with eyes locked on the crumpled form of their leader, the others staring with terrified awe at the one who’d crumpled him. Waiting only until she turned her glare on them directly to throw down their weapons and run.

She-Ra was supposed to be able to heal people, so she bent down and concentrated on repairing Catra’s wounds. She had never really managed it before, but this time was different. Somehow it began to click, as if She-Ra were guiding her to the answer. She could feel Catra’s life force emanating from her, reaching out for She-Ra’s aura, her wounds just felt like blank sections of a drawing, waiting to be coloured in. It took a few moments but the cuts and wounds on her arms and face began to fade, the broken ribs repaired themselves and even the very concept of pain seemed to leave her friend. Catra opened her eyes, for a moment she saw nothing but warmth.

“It’s okay Catra, it’s me” the cat girl’s eyes widened and then the panic faded, her ears twitched and the hair on her tail began to lower. It was strange seeing her vulnerable like this, but there was something about it that made her smile.

“Hey Adora.” The voice was a little drowsy, but she seemed content, like when she’d hidden on their balcony, napping in the sun. “I found your sword.”

“I know” she smiled at her friend, hoping that the simple gesture would break through She-Ra’s near permanent scowl. She rose, and offered a hand to Catra, pulling her friend to her feet.

Rogelio was next; she could only assume it was adrenaline that kept him standing, but he was in pretty bad shape, the cut on his head was dangerously close to his left eye, and that chest wound was bleeding after getting ground into the dirt by the soldiers. He sat calmy on a piece of skiff and let her do her work. When she’d finished, he marvelled at the results, she couldn’t help but smile at his wonder, they shared a brief smile as he nodded his thanks accompanied by an affectionate growl.

* * *

The five of them sat amongst the wreckage for a few minutes; taking the opportunity to wrap their heads around things before planning their next move. It had been a long time since she had enjoyed their silence. She was almost disappointed when Kyle spoke up, filling the air with his high-pitched voice.

“Erm, so what now, does anyone know where we are?” the growing darkness was no doubt worrying him, and he was probably right. This was not a place to be at night, there were predators out here besides Vultak.

“You were the pilot Kyle; you had the map” Catra called at him. He just chuckled in response, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, before sighing and making his way to the wreckage.

“Ro, did you bring my pad? We can load a map onto that”. The lizard was up too now and was prying open the dented storage container at the rear end of the former skiff. From there he pulled out a black duffle bag, slinging it across his shoulder as he jogged back to the group and tossed it to Kyle.

“I’ve got a map, but it’s not going to be easy to get to Brightmoon.” Kyle responded after a few minutes of rummaging in the bag and tapping at his tracker pad.

“If we keep by the road to Plumeria, it’ll take a week.” Catra spoke, peering over the boy’s shoulder at the pad. “We don’t have supplies for that. We could cut through the Whispering Woods, cut the journey in half” Though all the suggestion earned her was ten seconds of silence.

“The Whispering Woods?” Lonnie was practically screaming once again, “I’ve put up with a lot of crap so far but wandering off to die in the Whispering Woods is the line. Besides what’s the plan after that? What’s to stop the Rebellion from just throwing us into prison?”

“Me.” She spoke up for the first time in a while. “I’m stopping them. After everything you’ve all done, they’ll have to go through me if they want to do anything besides welcome you with open arms.”

“We’re taking Adora home Lonnie. After that we’ll figure things out.”

“You’re going to like Brightmoon, Lonnie” Adora smiled at her former squad mate. “all of you will.” But her smile was not returned by any of them, and the group returned to its awkward silence. Catra paced around the scene, stopping at the slumped form of the Force Captain against the tree.

“Oh damn, I think you killed Vultak”, Catra’s voice filled with something approaching glee. She bent down and pressed to fingers to his neck “Or at least hurt him really badly. How about I finish him off?” She brandished her claws.

“Leave him Catra”.

“Fine” instead Catra’s fingers moved to the fallen Force Captain’s chest, and pulled free his rank pin, before tossing it to Adora.

“What’s this?”

“a souvenir, for defeating a Force Captain.”

“I’ve defeated you”. She teased.

“That’s up for debate?” Catra smirked over her shoulder.

“I don’t think it is.”

“Then here, she undid her own pin and threw it to the blonde. “It’s not like I need it anymore anyway.” They fell into their old banter so easily, each willing to forget the past year if only for a few fleeting moments to share a smile. A smile that almost made the pain of the past twenty-four hours’ worth it.

The peace was shattered by a rustling from besides their camp, intruders. More Horde soldiers she had no doubt. They were always going to catch up to them now at they were on foot.

“There they are!” one cried, their cracking voice familiar, as she found herself relaxing her stance; recognising the other as they bounded from the brush; a blur of pink and purple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, this one took some extra time, I had to rework it more than a couple of times, even rewriting it from the Catra POV it was in the first draft. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out though. I think I was able to keep the action up, whilst not foregoing too much of the character introspection like I did in the previous chapter.
> 
> I didn't get to do much with Vultak, I just liked the character design, and thought he'd fit the chase seen very well, he'll be the last of the cameos for a while, as we're going to have a bit of space from the Horde.
> 
> We've also hit the end of the first act; The next chapter will be a brief interlude as we check in on some other characters. something of a habit of mine, but one that I'm going to keep indulging in. 
> 
> There might also be a bit of a delay before the next chapter as I have some other commitments coming up, but we'll see. It shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks.
> 
> As ever, let me know what you think, always exciting to see what works, what doesn't and just general thoughts from the audience.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so first chapter of my first fic. I'm hoping to explore the relationships between the Horde cadets as well and maybe develop the trio a little more than we got in the show, but for now we have to start slow. I was generally trying to get into Adora's head here, have her overthink things, question her worth, and reflect a little bit on how her defection might have affected her former friends, not sure how well that came across but feedback is welcome.
> 
> Also Mantenna was fun to play with.


End file.
